Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat has taken full ownership of McLaren Group, after the completion of a capital reorganisation process, first announced in December last year.
A leading UK supercar brand, McLaren, which builds high-end sportscars and owns a majority stake in the McLaren F1 team, hailed the takeover as a major milestone. Mumtalakat was already McLaren's biggest shareholder.
Under the reorganisation, long-term strategic investor Mumtalakat takes full ownership of the share capital of the Group following the conversion of all preference shares into ordinary shares.
"Today’s announcement crystallises the next phase of the company’s trajectory of growing its leadership position in the luxury super car and motorsports industries," remarked Mumtalakat CEO Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.
"This reorganisation and new simplified structure positions McLaren for success and opens up strategic avenues, which include exploring new partnerships to enhance the company’s growth over the coming years," noted Shaikh Abdulla.
"The completion of this process is also a significant milestone that reflects our support for McLaren’s continued innovation and long-term commitment to excellence," he added.
Over the last six decades, the McLaren brand has become one of the most successful in elite motorsport, competing around the world in Formula 1, IndyCar, Formula E, Extreme E and esports.
McLaren Group Executive Chairman Paul Walsh, expressed delight at Mumtalakat’s continued commitment to the UK group through this deal, which strengthens its ownership and governance structure.
This marks a major milestone in the ongoing transformation journey of the luxury automotive and elite motorsports group, he stated.
"This will further enable us to focus on delivering our long-term business plan, including investment in new products and technologies, whilst continuing to explore potential technical partnerships with industry partners," he added.
Headquartered in the Surrey town of Woking, the group owns McLaren Automotive, which over the past 14 years has become a major player in the market for prestige sportscars. Its products compete with models from the likes of Ferrari and Porsche.
The group also has a majority stake in McLaren Racing, which owns the McLaren Formula 1 team, and also competes in the US IndyCar series, and the electric series Formula E and Extreme E.
Since the inception of the company’s supercar arm in 2011, McLaren Automotive has quickly grown to become one of the world’s leading high-performance vehicle brands, with vehicles such as the P1, Senna and Speedtail now widely considered to be modern-day classics and icons of innovation.
Today, the company’s product portfolio of GT, supercar, Motorsport and Ultimate models is retailed through an expanding network of more than 100 retailers in 40-plus markets around the world.
According to Mumtalakat, the recapitalisation process began in December last year after McLaren shareholders unanimously approved the agreement.
Last year, it had bought shares and warrants worth £400 million ($512 million) in McLaren from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Ares Management, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
