Michael Latifi, a Canadian businessman, has become McLaren Group’s third-largest shareholder, investing almost £204 million in return for a 10% stake.
Latifi’s company Nidala Limited now owns one tenth of McLaren Automotive, McLaren Racing and McLaren Applied Technologies, with the only larger shareholders being the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company and Mansour Ojjeh’s TAG Group.
McLaren Group executive chairman Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa said: “This injection of capital is a vote of confidence in our future strategy and the group remains as focused as ever in positioning for growth. We are delighted Michael Latifi has joined the McLaren family.”
Latifi said: “I have been an admirer of the McLaren brand and its businesses for some time. McLaren is a unique organisation in automotive, racing and technology with exciting long-term growth prospects, which is why I have made this investment. I am proud to be part of McLaren and this incredible brand.”
McLaren Automotive, the road car division of the group, continues to go from strength to strength, with continuously increasing sales, as well as ambitious growth plans under chief executive Mike Flewitt.
There is said to be no link between Latifi’s investment and the career of his son, Nicholas, who is currently a development driver for Formula 1 team Force India and competes in the FIA F2 Championship for DAMS Racing.
Autocar is awaiting an official comment from a McLaren spokesman.
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