Monday, January 15, 2007

McLaren joins the Middle East

Interestingly while the never ending Middle East power struggle continues, including the fight over who has the most oil… The Bahrain Government has just purchased a 30% stake in McLaren…

If and when the deal is approved, McLaren’s new ownership will see Daimler-Chrysler become the majority stakeholder and the Bahrain government with the second largest stake. This will see the team’s previous majority shareholders Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh whom had already sold initially to Daimler-Chrysler, now further reduce their holding by selling a second block of the company to Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding… (A newly formed holding’s company of the Bahrain Government)

Interestingly there are two other teams on the Formula 1 grid with minority shareholdings being owned by Middle East concerns. Ferrari has a 5% foreign stakeholder while Spyker F1 is owned by a Dutch-Arab consortium…