McLaren seals £150m in funding from Bahraini bank
Supercar firm McLaren has arranged a new £150m financing facility with Bahrain’s national bank, the lender announced today.
The auto company has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, announcing that it would make 1,200 job cuts across its businesses last month.
In a regulatory filing, the National Bank of Bahrain confirmed the new funding arrangement, saying: “Final documentation has been signed and all the necessary approvals have been granted in relation to a £150 million financing facility”.
The move will help the supercar maker to fill a liquidity gap which it previously said would need to be filled by mid-July.
Although £291m was injected into the firm in March by investors, it has already been spent due to the impact of the pandemic.
It had been reported that the company would resort to selling off its collection of classic cars in order to raise emergency funds of up to £275m.
NBB is 44 per cent owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, which also holds a majority stake in McLaren.
Last month, the firm said that the cancellation of motorsport, the suspension of manufacturing and retail operations and the reduced need for technological solutions were responsible for its cash problems.
About a quarter of the Surrey-based company’s 4,000-strong workforce will be lost due to the redundancies.
Jobs will be cut across the group’s applied, automotive and racing businesses, as well as its support and back office functions.
Group chairman Paul Walsh said the firm had no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce.
City PM has contacted McLaren for comment.