A Canadian Investor Just Bought A Big Chunk Of McLaren

McLaren may be a British company, but its owners come from all around the world. Now it has a new shareholder, and he comes from Canada.

The group announced yesterday that it sold shares in the company to one Michael Latifi, the Toronto-based head of Sofina Foods. Though the company didn’t disclose in the statement just how big a stake in the McLaren Group Latifi has taken, the BBC reports that his shares amount to 10 percent, for which he reportedly paid £203.8 million. That’s about $275m in equivalent US dollars, or $350m in Latifi’s own Canadian dollars.

The stake places Latifi as the third-largest shareholder in the group, which includes the F1 team, supercar manufacturer, and applied technologies division. The Bahraini royal family’s Mumtalakat investment arm remains the majority shareholder at 56 percent. Mansour Ojjeh‘s TAG Group holds another 14 percent. And the rest is divided up between four other minority stakeholders.

“This injection of capital is a vote of confidence in our future strategy and the group remains as focused as ever in positioning for growth,” said executive chairman Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa. “We are delighted Michael Latifi has joined the McLaren family.”

“I have been an admirer of the McLaren brand and its businesses for some time,” added Latifi. “McLaren is a unique organisation in automotive, racing and technology with exciting long-term growth prospects, which is why I have made this investment. I am proud to be part of McLaren and this incredible brand.”

In addition to his own holdings, Latifi’s son Nicholas is an aspiring (if as-yet unaccomplished) racing driver. He currently competes in Formula 2 (where he won a single race last year) and serves as a test driver for the Force India team. His father’s investment in McLaren could only help in his career. So don’t be surprised to see him moving into a McLaren development role in the near future.