Canadian businessman Michael Latifi, whose son Nicholas currently races in Formula Two, bought a roughly 10% stake in the McLaren Group that includes the Formula 1 team, according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. McLaren, announcing Latifi's involvement on Monday, said that the £203.8M ($273.3M) injection "significantly strengthens the group's balance sheet and underpins its ambitious growth plans." The proceeds will be received "over the coming year." The McLaren Group includes the McLaren Automotive sportscar business, McLaren Racing and McLaren Applied Technologies companies. The shareholding, through Latifi's British Virgin Isles-based company Nidala, was seen as a "purely commercial deal" and the team said that it was "unrelated" to the 22-year-old Latifi's racing career (REUTERS, 5/21). The BBC's Andrew Benson reported the Bahraini royal family's Mumtalakat investment fund remains the majority shareholder in McLaren, owning about 56%. Longtime shareholder Mansour Ojjeh of Tag owns about 14% and "there are four other minority shareholders" (BBC, 5/21).
