We heard rumours about this and now McLaren has been officially bought over
In December, McLaren shareholders unanimously approved a full recapitalisation of the business ostensibly to allow for a “simplified” and “streamlined” governance process. We reported on this and said that it was only a matter of time, well now it seems that the news is official.
The finances of McLaren have long been under scrutiny and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it took out a £150million (roughly RM894.3 million) loan with the National Bank of Bahrain, sold a stake in its F1 team, arranged a leaseback deal for its renowned Technology Centre factory in Woking and cut 1000 jobs.
Moreover, alongside delays to its new hybrid supercar the Artura, there were reports that Audi, which at the time was evaluating how best to enter F1, was considering a major investment in McLaren but the brand has now announced that long-term investor Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, the Bahrain sovereign wealth fund, has taken full ownership of the share capital “following the conversion of all preference shares into ordinary shares”.
Mumtalakat has been partnered with McLaren since a 2007 purchase of a 30 percent stake from former chairman Ron Dennis and the late Mansour Ojjeh. Following the initial sale of £185million (about RM1.1 billion) in shares in the F1 team to American investment firm MSP Sports Capital.
Now, the McLaren Group retains a 67 percent stake in McLaren Racing – which also competes in IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E. Ahead of the Australian GP, McLaren Racing confirmed that CEO Zak Brown has signed a new contract until 2030.
On top of that, in the UK House of Lords on Thursday, McLaren’s Bahraini ties were raised as part of a debate concerning sports being used to improve the image of countries with poor human rights records. Well, at the end of the day, the brand makes supercars so as long as they keep making good supercars, they should be fine.
As part of the debate, peer Lord Scriven labelled F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali as arrogant, having a “lack of professionalism and non-engagement” for not responding to concerns about the championship racing in states that are attempting to ‘sportswash’ their image.
Scriven added that Domenicali’s “leadership of F1 is damaging the reputation of his sport, as he refuses to engage with the issues around F1 and human rights”. What do you guys think then? Is this the turning point for McLaren or will nothing change.
