The McLaren Formula One team is to be valued at over £3bn in a deal that will reap a stellar return for the investors which helped bail out its parent company during the pandemic.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that McLaren Group’s owners – Mumtalakat, the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund, and Abu Dhabi-based automotive investment group CYVN Holdings – are to buy out the 30% stake in McLaren Racing that they do not already own.
Sources said the deal, which will give the two Gulf investors full ownership of McLaren Racing, could be announced as soon as Tuesday.
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If confirmed, a transaction would value McLaren Racing at over £3bn, the sources said, underlining the resurgent performance of its motorsport operations under chief executive Zak Brown.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri won last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, with McLaren holding an apparently impregnable grip on this year’s F1 constructors’ championship.
Briton Lando Norris sits in second place in the drivers’ rankings, behind his Australian team-mate.
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The deal will involve Mumtalakat and CYVN acquiring the stakes in McLaren Racing currently owned by MSP Sports Capital, Ares Investment Management, UBS O’Connor and a number of other small shareholders.
MSP Sports Capital spearheaded a deal announced in 2020 to buy an initial 15% stake in McLaren Racing which gave the business a post-money valuation of £560m.
The deal provided urgently needed capital to the wider McLaren Group, whose automotive arm’s finances were placed in a parlous state by the pandemic.
McLaren Group engineered a series of capital injections, the sale of its Applied Technologies division and the sale-and-leaseback of its spectacular Surrey headquarters in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet.
The £3bn-plus valuation at which the 30% stake is expected to change hands this week reflects the stronger financial position of the broader McLaren Group, as well as the phenomenal performance of the McLaren Racing business.
McLaren Racing is owned by McLaren Group Ltd, while McLaren Group Holdings – the entity owned by CYVN – in turn owns 100% of McLaren Automotive.
Sports financiers said it would also underline growing investor appetite for F1-related assets, with Aston Martin saying in July that it would sell its stake in its eponymous Grand Prix team at a valuation of £2.4bn.
There has also been speculation about the future of Red Bull’s investment in the sport, and about Ineos’s long-term commitment to the Mercedes F1 team.
Some of the minority investors in McLaren Racing acquired their stakes in 2021 and will also bank a handsome windfall from the sale to McLaren Group.
Mumtalakat will retain a controlling stake in McLaren Racing after the buyout of the minority investors, according to insiders.
The deal will further simplify the ownership of one of the most famous names in the global luxury car industry.
Bankers have talked up the prospect of a McLaren public listing for years, but its repeated need to tap private shareholders for funding and the supply chain challenges which have hindered its recovery mean that an IPO is still likely to be several years away.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was forced into a far-reaching restructuring that saw hundreds of jobs axed.
Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, the group’s name is among the most famous in motorsport.
During half a century of competing in F1, it has won the constructors’ championship numerous times, while its drivers have included the likes of Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
In total, the team has won more than 200 Grands Prix, three Indianapolis 500s and the Le Mans 24 Hours on its debut.
The company saw its separate divisions reunited following the departure in 2017 of Ron Dennis, the veteran McLaren boss who had steered its F1 team through the most successful period in its history.
Mr Dennis offloaded his stake in a £275m deal following a bitter dispute with fellow shareholders.
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McLaren Racing declined to comment.
