McLaren Group, the renowned British supercar maker, has recently announced the addition of three new members to its board, including the former CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Torsten Muller-Otvos, who retired from Rolls-Royce earlier this year, has been recruited as a non-executive director of the Surrey-based company. The other two appointments are Pierre-Yves Roussel, the CEO of American luxury lifestyle brand Tory Burch, and Dennis Nobelius, a former executive at Volvo Cars. These appointments, as noted in filings at Companies House, bring extensive experience in the automotive and luxury goods industries to the McLaren board.
Chaired by former Diageo chief Paul Walsh, McLaren has been showing signs of improvement in its financial performance. This is a significant development for the company, which owns a large stake in the Formula One team bearing its name. One industry source stated that the recruitment of Mr. Muller-Otvos was a major achievement for McLaren.
In 2020, McLaren recorded a record loss of over £870 million as it underwent a recapitalization of its balance sheet, led by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat. The fund now holds full ownership of the group, but discussions are ongoing regarding potential technology partnerships that could result in the sale of a minority equity stake in McLaren. In the first quarter of the 2021 financial year, the company reported its best quarter in nearly five years, with an underlying profit of £3 million and a 52% increase in revenues.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, McLaren was forced to undergo a significant restructuring, resulting in hundreds of job cuts and the raising of substantial amounts of equity and debt to repair its balance sheet. The company’s financial strain led it to repeatedly seek funding from Mumtalakat, as well as enter into a sale-and-leaseback agreement for its Woking headquarters. In 2021, McLaren also sold its McLaren Applied Technologies division, which generates revenue from sales to corporate customers.
Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, the company’s name is synonymous with British motorsport. Over the past 50 years, its Formula One team has won the constructors’ championship eight times, with drivers such as Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna. The team has also achieved 180 Grand Prix victories, three Indianapolis 500s, and a Le Mans 24 Hours win on its debut.
In 2017, McLaren’s separate divisions were reunited following the departure of long-time boss Ron Dennis, who had steered the company’s Formula One team through its most successful period. The veteran executive sold his stake in a £275 million deal following a contentious dispute with fellow shareholders. McLaren declined to comment further on the recent board appointments.
