Bahraini buyout of McLaren confirmed

The Kingdom of Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat Holding Company, the majority shareholder at McLaren, has confirmed a full buyout of the McLaren Group, which holds a majority stake in the iconic Formula 1 team.

Mumtalakat first became involved at McLaren when it bought a 30% shareholding in the team from Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh in 2007. A few years later, it moved into a majority holding and undertook a couple of financial restructures of the assets under the McLaren name.

Talal Al Zain, CEO Mumtalakat @ Motorsport Business Forum Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco, Day One, Wednesday 9 December 2009.

Already holding 56.4% of McLaren Group, Mumtalakat bought the shares of TAG Group Limited at 14.32%, Nidala (BVI) Limited (Michael Latifi) at 9.84%, Favorita Limited at 5.78%, Perlman Investments Limited at 5.77%, McKal Holdings Ltd 5.24% and Acanitt Limited 2.65%.

The McLaren Group owns the automotive business and holds a majority stake in McLaren Racing, which operates in Formula 1, IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E.

Rumours in Albert Park had linked Toyota to the F1 team after the new owners said it was willing to “explore potential technical partnerships with industry partners”. Our F1 expert, Luis Vasconcelos, says that it is possible there can be a technical partnership with Toyota, but little more because the Japanese auto giant would then need to build an F1 engine. It has a non-competition agreement with Honda for international racing.

Earlier this week, McLaren confirmed an extension to Zak Brown’s tenure as CEO of the F1 team after signing drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to long-term deals last year.

Ron Dennis (GBR) McLaren Executive Chairman at Formula One World Championship, Rd17, Japanese Grand Prix, Qualifying, Suzuka, Japan, Saturday 8 October 2016.

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