SOLD! McLaren Officially Has New Owners
Key Takeaways
- McLaren has been fully bought out by the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Mumtalakat Holding Company.
- The sale includes all divisions, including McLaren’s roadgoing supercar division, motorsport teams, and technology team.
- Additional funding ends a tumultuous few years for McLaren with a goal towards greater stability and long-term profitability.
Late last year, reports emerged claiming that the McLaren Group was set to be fully bought out by the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Mumtalakat Holding Company. Those reports have now been officially confirmed by all stakeholders, announcing that the investment group has increased its stake in the company from 60% to 100%. It has not been revealed how much money the fund’s conversion of preference shares to ordinary shares raised, but whatever cash injection was made should nevertheless bring further financial stability to McLaren after a tumultuous past few years.
Along with financial woes, the Artura hybrid sports car was a thorn in the Woking-based automotive division’s side. With a much better-looking balance sheet, McLaren should be in a position of strength for the next few years of supercar design and development, preventing such fiery issues from being repeated in future products.
Bahraini Ownership Has Been A Long Time Coming
In 2020, McLaren appeared at risk of dissolution. The following year, the McLaren Group was forced to sell its fancy Woking headquarters to Global Net Lease, headquarters that it immediately leased back for the next 20 years. By late 2022, things had not improved much and McLaren had to sell cars from its Heritage Collection, using those funds to resolve ongoing Artura issues.
Fortunately, those classic Macs were bought by the same sovereign fund that now owns the entire McLaren Group, so they’re somewhat safe. Finally, a year ago, McLaren secured another big investment from Mumtalakat, which made today’s announcement appear all but inevitable.
Related
McLaren Sells Cars From Heritage Collection To Fund Artura Fixes
“Certain technical upgrades” forced Macca to sell some of its most iconic cars.
McLaren Group Is A Big Pie With Many Slices
The McLaren Group is divided into several smaller divisions, which include McLaren Automotive, McLaren Applied, McLaren Racing Limited (which includes the Formula 1 and Indy teams), and McLaren Technologies. We’re most interested about the road division, which is expected to benefit from “investment in new products and technologies,” according to McLaren Group executive chairman Paul Walsh.
Mumtalakat has been an investor since 2007, but it should now be able to make even more progress – BBC sources report that “getting rid of what was seen as an overly complex shareholder structure will make future partnerships easier.” The publication notes that McLaren needs these partnerships for future EVs, with reports pointing to discussions being held with Polestar, Hyundai, Lucid Motors, and BMW.
Here’s hoping another supercar mashup will result from this.
