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It looks like McLaren supercars will continue to come out of the automaker’s manufacturing facility in Britain, but if anyone there needs to talk to the company’s owner, it will continue to be a long-distance call. Its previous owners in Bahrain have sold McLaren to an investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
News of the final sale was first announced in October, but everything is now a done deal, with the transaction closing just before the end of 2024. The new owner is CYVN Holdings, a Abu Dhabi government-owned United Arab Emirates company . capital.
McLaren also recently announced that Henrik Wilhelmsmeyer, previously hired through BMW and Rolls-Royce, will become the company’s advertising director starting in early January 2025, leading McLaren’s global sales and marketing.
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Just last March, McLaren was entirely taken over by Mumtalakat Holding Co., the state-owned sovereign wealth fund in Bahrain, which had previously held a majority share in the marque, along with stakes in the McLaren racing teams. It was expected the ownership would help with McLaren’s rocky finances.
To remain afloat, the automobile manufacturer had in the past sold its headquarters and then remained there under lease; it has cut some 1,200 employees; production has been temporarily stopped; and, in 2022, it entered its heritage collection and sold $123 million value of automobiles to Mumtalakat to assistance fund the rollout and production of its new Artura hybrid superautomobile.
But now it has a new owner and for an undisclosed acquisition price. It seems CYVN Holdings has what it takes, at least financially: It owns a stake worth about $2. 2 billion in Nio, a Chinese electric vehicle maker; as well as a majority stake in Gordon Murray Technologies, an automotive design and engineering company named after its founder, who has designed several vehicles, including the McLaren F1.
The deal also includes a non-majority stake in the McLaren Group, which is the racing division.
In a statement released by Mumtalakat when the deal was first announced, McLaren’s move to CYVN would “provide access to more capital, complex engineering expertise and pioneering technology, particularly in the electric vehicle sector. “
McLaren has said it is preparing a lightweight electric supercar, and this may be the push it wants to get it across the finish line. Either way, we’ll have to wait and see to what extent CYVN will or could do it. We needn’t worry about the British automaker or, perhaps, given McLaren’s recent history, whether it will finally be retained by its owner for a while this time around.
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· Professional for more than 35 years, appearing in some of the most important publications in Canada and the United States.
· Specialties include new vehicle reviews, vintage cars and automotive history, automotive news, and “How It Works” columns on vehicle features and technology.
· Member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) since 2003; voting member for AJAC Canadian Car of the Year Awards; juror on the Women’s World Car of the Year Awards
Jil McIntosh graduated from East York Collegiate in Toronto, and then continued her education at the School of Hard Knocks. Her early jobs including driving a taxi in Toronto; and warranty administration in a new-vehicle dealership, where she also held information classes for customers, explaining the inner mechanical workings of vehicles and their features.
Jil McIntosh is a freelancer who has written for Driving. ca since 2016, but she’s been a pro since most cars still had carburetors. At the age of eleven he published an article in the now defunct Toronto Telegram newspaper, for which he was paid $25; Given the short length of the story and the purchasing power of the dollar at the time, this might have been the relatively highest-paying article I have ever written.
An old-car enthusiast who owns a 1947 Cadillac and 1949 Studebaker truck, she began her writing career crafting stories for antique-car and hot-rod car club magazines. When the Ontario-based newspaper Old Autos started up in 1987, dedicated to the antique-car hobby, she became a columnist starting with its second issue; the newspaper is still around and she still writes for it. Not long after the Toronto Star launched its Wheels section in 1986 – the first Canadian newspaper to include an auto section – she became one of its regular writers. She started out writing feature stories, and then added “new-vehicle reviewer” to her resume in 1999. She stayed with Wheels, in print and later digital as well, until the publication made a cost-cutting decision to shed its freelance writers. She joined Driving.ca the very next day.
In addition to Driving. ca, he writes for industry-focused publications such as Automotive News Canada and Autosphere. Over the years his automotive paintings have also appeared in publications such as Cars & Parts, Street Rodder, Canadian Hot Rods, AutoTrader, Sharp, Taxi News, Maclean’s, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes Wheels, Canadian Driver, Sympatico Autos and Reader’s . Digest. His non-automotive paintings, which cover topics such as travel, food and drink, rural life, fountain pen collecting, and celebrity interviews, have appeared in publications such as Harrowsmith, Where New Orleans, Pen World, The Book for Men, Rural Delivery, and Gambit .
2016 AJAC Journalist of the Year; Car Care Canada / CAA Safety Journalism award winner in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013, runner-up in 2021; Pirelli Photography Award 2015; Environmental Journalism Award 2019; Technical Writing Award 2020; Vehicle Testing Review award 2020, runner-up in 2022; Feature Story award winner 2020; inducted into the Street Rodding Hall of Fame in 1994.
Email: jil@ca. inter. net
Linkedin: https://www. linkedin. com/in/jilmcintosh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JilMcIntosh
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