McLaren revamps board, appoints former Rolls-Royce boss | Business news

Torsten Muller-Otvos and the head of the American luxury lifestyle brand Tory Burch are among three new directors who have joined the board of the British supercar manufacturer, Sky News learns.

British supercar maker McLaren Group has strengthened its board with three appointments, including the former head of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Sky News can reveal that Torsten Muller-Otvos was hired earlier this month as a non-executive director of the Surrey-based company.

McLaren, led by former Diageo boss Paul Walsh, also hired Pierre-Yves Roussel, CEO of US luxury lifestyle brand Tory Burch, and Dennis Nobelius, a former Volvo Cars executive, according to documents filed with Companies House.

The appointments add expertise in the automotive and luxury goods industries to McLaren’s board as the company – which has a large stake in the Formula One team that bears its brand – shows signs of improving its financial performance.

One automotive industry source said the appointment of Muller-Otvos, who retired from Rolls-Royce – a separate company from the aircraft engine maker of the same name – was a coup for Mclaren.

McLaren posted a record loss of more than £870m last year after completing a recapitalization of its balance sheet led by Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund.

Mumtalakat has now taken full ownership of the group, although it is in talks about technology partnerships that could lead to the sale of a minority stake in McLaren.

The automotive group recorded a non-cash impairment charge of £375 million in 2023 to reflect asset write-downs related to production issues.

However, in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, McLaren reported its best quarter in almost five years, with an underlying profit of £3 million on revenues that grew by 52%.

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McLaren, whose road car models include the Artura Spider, P1 and Senna, has seen some of its former shareholders accept bonds that would benefit from a future “liquidity event” such as an initial public offering or sale of the company.

McLaren Racing, the division that directly houses F1 and other racing divisions, has its own outside shareholders following a deal struck during the pandemic.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the company was forced to undergo extensive restructuring, resulting in hundreds of job cuts and significant amounts of equity and debt raised to repair its balance sheet.

Its finances became so strained that it repeatedly turned to Mumtalakat for new funds and also entered into a sale and leaseback agreement of its Woking premises.

In 2021, it also sold McLaren Applied Technologies, which generates revenue from sales to corporate customers.

Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, the group’s name is one of the most famous in British motor sport.

During half a century of competition in F1, he won the constructors’ championship eight times, and his drivers included, among others: Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

In total, the team won 180 Grands Prix, three Indianapolis 500s and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in its debut.

Following the departure in 2017 of Ron Dennis, the experienced McLaren boss who led the F1 team through the most successful period in its history, the company’s various departments were reunited.

Dennis sold his shares in a deal worth £275m after a bitter dispute with other shareholders.

McLaren declined to comment further on its board appointments.