Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, last week became the sole owner of McLaren after buying out the stake of all other shareholders in a recapitalisation process.
Bahrain Mumtalakat is already the largest shareholder in McLaren, responsible for the McLaren Automotive supercar business and also owns a majority stake in McLaren Racing, the company that operates the McLaren Formula 1 team.
McLaren has struggled financially since the pandemic. The company survived thanks to additional investments from existing investors and took more extreme measures, such as selling historic cars and selling its headquarters in a sale-lease deal.
In the first few months of 2023, which is the most recent period for which McLaren’s financial effects are known, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £276 million (approximately $349 million).
McLaren Headquarters in Woking, UK
To rectify the situation, Bahrain Mumtalakat reached an agreement with other shareholders at the end of last year to adopt recapitalization and introduce a simplified shareholder design with a more streamlined governance process. This measure is unfinished to facilitate the formation of strategic partnerships with new investors. and generation providers.
“This reorganisation and the new simplified design positions McLaren for good luck and opens up strategic avenues, adding the exploration of new partnerships to the company’s expansion in the coming years,” Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, chief executive of Bahrain Mumtalakat, said in a statement.
Aston Martin, which, like McLaren, doesn’t have a major automaker behind it, last year entered into a generation-building partnership with American electric vehicle startup Lucid. The partnership will see Lucid supply part of its next-generation generation to Aston Martin, which plans to launch its first electric vehicle in 2026.
McLaren could form a similar partnership. The company has yet to announce its plans for an electric vehicle, and if it does, it most likely won’t be a supercar. Chief executive Michael Leiters has said that electric vehicle generation probably won’t be suitable for a supercar until the end of the century. decade. He also said McLaren is open to new segments, such as the ever-popular SUV segment.