McLaren Automotive and the McLaren Technology Group are being brought together under one corporate structure to be called the McLaren Group. The change unifies all activities under a single coordinated strategy and brand. As part of the news, Ron Dennis CBE has also sold his shares in the company.
The Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company and TAG Group become the McLaren Group’s long-term majority shareholders. Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa will be McLaren Group’s Executive Chairman, Mansour Ojjeh its Executive Committee Principal. Mike Flewitt continues to lead McLaren Automotive as Chief Executive Officer while McLaren Technology Group Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Neale and McLaren Technology Group Executive Director Zak Brown also continue in their current roles.
The TAG Group first invested in McLaren in 1984 and is the longest standing of the McLaren Group’s shareholders. They were joined ten years ago by the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company. Both remain committed to McLaren and excited for its next phase of growth.
“Since I became a major investor in the business 33 years ago, I am exceptionally proud of what each of our extraordinary McLaren businesses have achieved, growing independently and entrepreneurially,” Mansour Ojjeh said. “Now, as they have reached world-class scale and success, it is the right next step to unify the strategies and brands to create a stronger centre of Luxury Automotive, Racing and Technological excellence.
“In a matter of just seven short years, McLaren Automotive has established itself as one of the world’s leading creators of luxury sports and supercars. Its products are now routinely hailed as best-in-class. Mike Flewitt and his team have done, and are continuing to do a brilliant job, and the company’s recent announcement of a fourth consecutive year of profitability indicates a robust future. The new McLaren 720S, the first car to be launched under its Track22 business plan, is already sold out well into 2018 and there will be a lot more exciting cars where that came from.
“McLaren Racing, part of McLaren Technology Group, is not currently achieving the on-track success in Formula 1 that we know it is capable of, and that it has achieved in the past, but that will change. As motor racing is in our DNA, we exist to win in Formula 1 and be the best in everything we do. Jonathan Neale and Zak Brown, supported by Eric Boullier and the best engineers, mechanics and marketers in Formula 1, are fully engaged in the process of bringing about that turnaround, and it will be great to see McLaren back in the winners’ circle before too long.
“McLaren Applied Technologies continues to go from strength to strength. Partnering with companies that share our visionary determination to innovate, it is becoming profitable as well as pioneering ground-breaking technologies. And its scope for development is exciting. This is an area of our business in which we intend to invest, with a view to achieving consistent growth.”
The McLaren Group employs 3,400 people located largely at its iconic McLaren Technology Centre headquarters in Woking, UK, and in 2016 had a combined turnover of £898 million. McLaren Automotive celebrated the production of its 10,000th car in December 2016 and now sells its family of Sports Series, Super Series and Ultimate Series products across 30 global markets. The entrepreneurial McLaren Technology Group encompasses McLaren Applied Technologies, McLaren Marketing and McLaren Racing which has won 182 Formula 1 Grands Prix and 20 Formula 1 World Championships.
The announcement follows the decision of Ron Dennis CBE to step down as the Chairman of McLaren Automotive and McLaren Technology Group, reaching agreement with his fellow shareholders to sell his shareholdings in both companies.
“I am very pleased to have reached agreement with my fellow McLaren shareholders,” Dennis said. “It represents a fitting end to my time at McLaren, and will enable me to focus on my other interests. I have always said that my 37 years at Woking should be considered as a chapter in the McLaren book, and I wish McLaren every success as it takes the story forward.
“I will continue to consult for various companies and work with the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence Innovation Advisory Panel in helping to improve the technology, the culture and the organisations that together safeguard the UK’s national security.
“I will also continue to run my family’s charitable foundation – Dreamchasing – which focuses on mentoring and financing children and young people from all walks of life, so that they may aspire to and succeed in whatever their career dreams may be.
“Now that my time at McLaren has come to an end, I will be able to involve myself in a series of other programmes and activities, especially those focused on public service. I will continue to indulge my passion for supporting contemporary artists and collecting their work, but most of all I will be driving new ideas and projects forward.
“Last but far from least, I wish McLaren well, and I send my greatest thanks and best wishes to my colleagues in all corners of its business, and at every level of seniority. Truly, they are the best of the best. And, well funded to succeed and grow, and led by an ambitious management team, McLaren is ideally poised to build on the successes that I am so proud to have contributed to during my time leading such a great British group of companies.”
McLaren Group has secured long-term financing to acquire these plus stimulate growth in its wider businesses and consolidate its financial arrangements.
J.P. Morgan is acting as financial adviser to the McLaren Group and will be leading a debt capital markets financing for the transaction.
