McLaren may sell shares in F1 team | Business

McLaren, the supercar manufacturer based in Surrey, is looking to raise £500 million to shore up a business hit by a sharp fall in sales during the pandemic.

The carmaker was spun out of the McLaren Formula 1 team by Ron Dennis, its former executive chairman, and is majority owned by the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain. The company is in talks with a special purpose acquisition company, a takeover vehicle known as a Spac, according to the Financial Times.

It is understood the deal could involve stakes being sold in the F1 racing team and in McLaren’s applied science division, which sells automotive-related technologies to other sectors.

“We need to restructure the total business,” Mike Flewitt, chief executive of McLaren, said. “We went