The Bahraini government-owned Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, chaired by Sheik Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the country’s finance minister and royal family member, has bought a 30 percent shareholding in the McLaren Group. This would make the Bahraini Kingdom the second largest owner in the group after DaimlerChrysler with 40 percent ownership and ahead of Ron Dennis and the TAG Group each with 15 percent. TAG, which stands for Techniques d'Avant Garde, has had a long involvement with McLaren and was originally made famous for its holding in TAG Heuer watches.

This follows the news of other Arab investors buying into the likes of Ferrari and Spyker. The Abu Dhabi government-run Mubadala Development Company owns a 5 percent stake in Ferrari as well as a stake in the Spyker F1 team. Spyker is also owned by a member of the Al-Khalifa clan through a company called MerchantBridge, which is controlled by Sheik Mohamed bin Abdallah Al-Khalifa.

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