MSP Sports Capital will invest a total of US$248M into McLaren RacingGETTY IMAGES
U.S.-based sports investment group MSP Sports Capital acquired a significant minority shareholding in McLaren Racing, which will help drive the team's plan to return to the top in Formula 1. MSP is co-investing with its strategic partners UBS O'Connor and The Najafi Companies. The transaction will see MSP Sports Capital acquire a significant minority stake in the team, with McLaren Group remaining the majority shareholder. MSP Sports Capital will invest a total of £185M (US$248M) into McLaren Racing, acquiring an initial 15% stake that will increase to a maximum of a 33% shareholding by the end of '22. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown's leadership team continues in place, as Paul Walsh will sit as Chair, while Jahm Najafi and Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa will become Vice-Chairs (McLaren). MSP Principal Jeff Moorad and USB O'Connor's Rodrigo Trelles Zabala "will join the McLaren Racing board as non-executive directors." MSP has invested in MLB, the NBA and ESPN (BBC.com, 12/13).
NEEDED INJECTION OF CAPITAL: SKY SPORTS noted McLaren's deal "will underline the investors' belief in the team's long-term resurgence and provide a welcome injection of capital into a broader automotive group which has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis." McLaren has "fallen on leaner times on the track during the last decade," although under Brown its "fortunes have begun to revive." The sale of a minority shareholding "will provide sufficient funds to assist Brown's ambition of seeing McLaren compete again for F1 drivers' and constructors' titles in the coming years" (SKYSPORTS.com, 12/13).
