McLaren Group Limited, which now consists of the McLaren car manufacturing company and its motorsports division, has been wholly acquired by the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company. According to Paul S. Walsh, Executive Chairman of McLaren Group, controlling 100% of the company stock will enable the group to focus on achieving its strategic goals, such as designing new cars and researching technologies.
Mumtalakat has been taking part in McLaren for 17 years now, with a share of 60% in the company prior to its acquisition this month. The fund struck a buyout deal with the remaining shareholders in December 2023 and has now finalized it.
The financial difficulties that McLaren had encountered these past years were exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. In 2020, the company had to undergo a restructuring that saw many employees laid off. In 2022, the British classis sports car brand had to sell a part of its museum collection to the Mumtalakat fund. At about the same time, Michael Leiters, the then-CEO of McLaren Automotive, admitted that the company had occasionally delivered faulty and unfinished vehicles to customers until he had taken matters into his own hands.
The automaker’s premieres over the past year included the 750S supercar, the GTS grand tourer and the Artura Spider. Next up in queue is an unnamed hybrid hypercar from the company’s Ultimate lineup. It is only known under the temporary designation “P18” right now and is envisioned as a successor to the P1 supercar that retired in 2015.