McLaren Racing valued at £3.5bn after ownership change
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are first and second in the F1 drivers' championship
- Published
The company that owns the McLaren Formula 1 team has been valued at about £3.5bn - more than a sixfold increase since 2020 - as a result of a change in ownership structure.
US investment Group MSP Capital, which bought a 33% shareholding in McLaren Racing five years ago, has been bought out by majority shareholder Mumtalakat, Bahrain's sovereign investment fund, and Abu Dhabi-based CYVN Holdings.
MSP spent £185m on its stake, which at the time valued McLaren Racing at £560m.
McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown told BBC Sport: "It's a great day for McLaren. It has been an amazing quest to get back to where we are.
"It wasn't long ago our business was extremely challenged and we weren't competitive.
"So, five years later, this underlines the success F1 is having in the cost-cap era and has enabled us to be competitive.
"It's great to have McLaren back at the front again and great to have a simplified ownership structure."
McLaren Racing also has a front-running team in the US-based IndyCar World Series, and is entering the World Endurance Championship in 2027. It closed its team in the all-electric Formula E world championship at the end of the most recent season.
The move underlines the remarkable turnaround in fortunes of McLaren in F1 under the leadership of Brown, who joined the company in 2016, and the success on track since Andrea Stella became team principal in December 2022.
It also reflects the rise of value in all F1 teams since US-based Liberty Media took over the commercial rights to the sport in 2017.
McLaren won the constructors' championship last year for the first time since 1998 and this year are well on course for a drivers' and constructors' title double.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are first and second in the drivers' championship having won 12 of the 15 races so far this season.
McLaren have more than double the points of their closest pursuers Ferrari in the constructors' title chase.
A statement from McLaren said: "The simplified ownership structure and strengthened capital base resulting from the transaction will position McLaren Racing for continued success both on and off the track.
"The board and executive management team remain committed to delivering on the vision to be the most pioneering and exhilarating racing team in the world."
McLaren Racing is owned by the McLaren Group, and is a separate business from McLaren Automotive, which was bought by CYVN Holdings earlier this year.
The transaction announced on Tuesday sees Mumtalakat and CYVN buy all the shares of McLaren's minority shareholders, of which MSP had the largest stake.
Paul Walsh, the executive chairman of the McLaren Group said: "Our suite of minority investors came on board in 2020 and we thank them for their tremendous support over the past few years as we set McLaren Racing on a path to commercial growth and financial stability.
"We now have two fantastic shareholders in Mumtalakat, a long-standing and deeply valued partner, and CYVN, whose additional investment in Automotive and McLaren Racing, together with their strategic focus on advanced mobility, strengthens our ability to future-proof the business and capture new growth opportunities."