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Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund has tightened its control on McLaren, buying the shares owned by Saudi Arabia and investment manager Ares, paving the way to recapitalise the supercar maker in the coming months.
Mumtalakat, which was already the controlling shareholder, said on Thursday it had bought up the preference shares owned by Riyadh’s Public Investment Fund and Ares. It did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
The pair invested £400mn in July 2021 as part of McLaren’s long-running efforts to raise cash.
The deal simplifies the structure of the shareholder register, making it easier for the owners to issue new shares in the coming months.
McLaren chief executive Michael Leiters, who joined from Ferrari last year, told the Financial Times last month that the planned recapitalisation would also lead to “simpler decision making” at the top of the company, which has previously been beset by differing opinions from its various shareholder groups.
Mumtalakat said it had “acquired the senior preference shareholders’ stakes in McLaren Group Limited, which is part of a proposed broader comprehensive restructuring of the group to achieve its long-term objectives”.
The lossmaking business, which competes with marques such as Lamborghini and Ferrari, is seeking to raise more funds in the coming months to invest in new models and as it looks to stabilise the company, which has been hurt by product delays.
Leiters told the FT last month that the business must become profitable before it could move into new car segments, such as the SUV-style models that Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin have released.
“We have to first do our homework, we have to develop our future line-up, we have to get profitable . . . and then if we see that we are in the right way, we can decide about a car like an SUV,” he told the Future of the Car summit in May.
McLaren reported a pre-tax loss of £274.9mn last year, up from £67.5mn in 2021 in part because of delays, supply constraints and cost inflation.
It disclosed in accounts this year that in 2022, because of delays to revenues from its hybrid Artura supercar, the company had sold some of its heritage vehicles to its largest shareholder for about £100mn.
In March, investors put in another £70mn to help the company but it plans a more significant recapitalisation in the coming months in which it could sell new equity.
PIF has already spread itself across several high-end automotive companies, taking a stake in Aston Martin last year, and is the cornerstone investor in luxury electric start-up Lucid.
McLaren declined to comment. PIF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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