AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/03 Report--

Supercar brand McLaren is also going to cooperate with Chinese car companies? Mumtalakat Holding Co, the controlling shareholder of McLaren, is seeking to bring in additional investors who can provide capital and technical expertise to fund McLaren's further growth, according to people familiar with the matter. McLaren has approached potential investors, including Chinese carmakers, but these discussions are still at an early stage and it is uncertain whether a deal will be struck, and representatives of McLaren and Mumtalakat declined to comment on the information.

The problems caused by the shortage of funds have not been bothering McLaren for a day or two. When COVID-19 's epidemic swept the global market in 2020, McLaren was in a difficult situation. At its most difficult time, McLaren applied to the British government for a loan of 150 million pounds, but the British government did not approve the loan. In order to ease the financial crisis, McLaren announced that it would lay off 1/4, 1200 of its 4000 employees, including Formula one fleets, road production cars and applied technology businesses, most of which were laid off in the UK.

At the same time, McLaren had planned to sell its headquarters building worth 200 million pounds. Later, McLaren received a £150 million loan from a bank in Bahrain and the headquarters building was able to tide over the difficulties temporarily. However, the following year, McLaren had to sell the headquarters building to GlobalNetLease, an American company, for 170 million pounds because of financial difficulties, and then continue to use it by leasing back.

The McLaren Artura, which was supposed to be delivered, had to stop production first because of a shortage of chips, and then because of the need for a technology upgrade, which was delayed indefinitely because of a lack of funds to complete the upgrade. Faced with financial difficulties this time, McLaren chose to sell some collectible classic cars to Mumtalakat in exchange for £100m of liquidity.

At the end of 2022, McLaren had to sell some historic vehicles because of chip shortages and the suspension of production of the Artura supercar, which was delayed indefinitely because of the need for a technology upgrade but a lack of funds to complete the upgrade. In response to the crisis, McLaren chose to sell some collectible classic cars to Mumtalakat in exchange for £100m of liquidity to fund research and development of the delayed Artura supercar.

The continuing financial difficulties reflect that McLaren's risk tolerance is far lower than that of other supercar brands. Although McLaren is a supercar brand, unlike other supercar manufacturers, there are no financiers behind McLaren, such as Lamborghini Audi, Bugatti Volkswagen, Lutes Geely, Ferrari Stellantis, and what does McLaren have? At the same time, McLaren is so determined about supercars that she refuses to launch SUV and all-electric cars, even among ultra-luxury sports car makers, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Maserati and even Ferrari have dropped their recalcitrant posture and launched SUV or new energy models to cope with changes in market demand. McLaren, who is so committed to the brand's genes, is good news for fans of fuel supercars, but embracing changes in the global market may go further.

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