McLaren Won’t Follow in Williams’ Float Footsteps

Chief financial officer for Formula 1 team McLaren, Andy Myers has stated that it will not be following its British rival Williams to the stock market.

50 per cent of the ownership of McLaren is held by Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund with the remaining shares in the hands of its chairman, Ron Dennis, and Saudi tycoon Mansour Ojjeh. 

In November 2009, they bought out former shareholder Mercedes’ 40 per cent stake but the motivation was not to list the business according to Myers, who stated: “The McLaren group has no plans to float in the future.”

Tomorrow, March 2, Williams will become the first F1 team to float when it lists 28 per cent of its shares on the Frankfurt stock exchange with the majority of the offering sold by its co-founder Patrick Head, who intends to retire this year.

Myers said McLaren’s strategy “is to remain as a private company in the ownership of a small number of focused shareholders, since we believe that best suits our business model”.