Ron Dennis sells his McLaren shares
The end is nigh for Ron Dennis at McLaren: the Briton has sold his shares in the team and the automaker, which are taking advantage of the opportunity to merge. He is also stepping down from all his positions to move on to other projects.
Last November, Ron Dennis was forced to leave the team he had been leading for 35 years. The final step of this departure process has now been completed with the sale of his shares (25% of McLaren Technology Group and 10.3% of McLaren Automotive). The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed, but the team now indicates that the group, which will merge the two current entities, is now valued at 2.4 billion pounds sterling, or 2.7 billion euros.
It was initially decided to separate the F1 team and its technological derivatives from the sports vehicle activity to prevent the financial difficulties of one from dragging down the other. At the time, the main goal was to protect the F1 team, which was in its prime, while launching a new sports vehicle brand was a significant risk.
But since then, McLaren F1 has suffered significant setbacks on the track with problems from its Honda engine, while McLaren has been flying from success to success with its increasingly extensive range of vehicles.
Mansour Ojjeh, the executive committee director, explains his desire to merge the two activities within McLaren Group: « Since I became a major shareholder in the company 33 years ago, I am very proud of what each of McLaren’s businesses have achieved, growing independently and entrepreneurially. Now that they have a global scale, it is time to unify the strategies and brands to create an even stronger center of excellence in luxury automobiles, motorsport, and technology. »
The two shareholders, the TAG group of Mansour Ojjeh and the Bahrain sovereign wealth fund, Muntalatak, have thus decided to keep all the current leaders in place, whether it is Zak Brown, Jonathan Neale, or Eric Boullier.
However, it is not time for retirement for Ron Dennis since he still intends to play a role as a consultant for the British Ministry of Defense. He will also become even more involved in his family foundation, Chasedreaming, as he explains: « It was having worked with Lewis Hamilton, whom I took under my wing when he was only 12 years old and who became the F1 world champion with McLaren in 2008, that gave me the idea to found Dreamchasing as a charitable foundation. »
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
