McLaren F1 Team Valued At More Than £3 Billion In Stake Sale

McLaren Racing Ltd, the Formula One team that’s currently leading the championship, will be valued at more than £3 billion ($4.1 billion) in a stake sale, according to two people familiar with the matter, underscoring continued investor bullishness about the sport.

The owners of McLaren Group Limited — Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and Abu Dhabi-based CYVN Holdings — will take full control of the racing team, the people said, asking not to be named discussing the deal.

They’ll buy out the 30% stake owned by MSP Sports Capital and other minority shareholders who bought into McLaren in 2020 at a valuation of £560 million. Walmart Inc. heir Rob Walton was also an investor during the round, Bloomberg previously reported.

McLaren Racing and MSP declined to comment. The stake sale was first reported by Sky News.

It’s the latest bumper valuation for an F1 team amid the growing interest in the sport from fans and investors. The Aston Martin team is in talks to achieve a roughly £2.4 billion valuation in its latest stake sale, even though it’s well behind the frontrunners in the championship table.

Led by Chief Executive Officer Zak Brown, McLaren Racing won the team championship last year for the first time in 26 years. The team’s drivers — Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris — are currently the top two contenders to win the drivers’ championship for McLaren for the first time since 2008.

While the F1 team’s been riding high, there’s plenty of work to do at the high-end sports car maker McLaren Automotive Ltd. that’s part of the group. 

CYVN is aiming to reverse years of losses at the cash-strapped manufacturer. McLaren has had to tap shareholders for funding on multiple occasions in recent years, sell some of its heritage car collection, offload its advanced technologies arm and completed a sale and leaseback of its Woking headquarters.