(Reuters) – Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat is talks about a deal with minority investors of luxury automaker McLaren Group that would effectively see the fund becoming McLaren’s sole owner, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
The agreement could be announced as soon as this week as part of a deal and would involve about 20% of the equity in McLaren being converted into new contracts, the report said.
The new contracts will have the economic rights to benefit from a future “liquidity event” such as an initial public offering of McLaren, but would not be classed as shares, according to Sky News.
Mumtalakat in June said it had expanded its stake in McLaren Group, which includes the British supercar maker and McLaren Racing.
The sovereign wealth fund bought shares and warrants worth 400 million pounds ($508.92 million) in McLaren from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Ares Management Sky News reported in June.
McLaren Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment and Mumtalakat could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular business hours.
Mumtalakat, which has a 60% stake in McLaren, expects the British company to go public in two to three years, its chief executive told Reuters in June last year.
($1 = 0.7860 pounds)
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker)
