After months of negotiations on the sale of the 840,000 square meter facility, a purchase agreement for the factory was announced on Tuesday by the American company Global Net Lease (GNL).
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year and include a 20-year lease for McLaren.
James Nelson, CEO of GNL, said: “We are pleased to announce that this world class facility is joining the GNL portfolio.
“The state-of-the-art buildings at McLaren Group Headquarters have won numerous awards, were designed by renowned architect Norman Foster and are the type of mission-critical, network-leased property that make up the GNL portfolio.”
McLaren has faced serious cash flow problems over the past year and felt there was no benefit in locking cash in its factory as it looked for ways to supplement its finances.
The company pursued a sale-and-lease-back deal to get an immediate financial boost as it would allow it to take advantage of the expansive investment in Woking and then reinvest that money in the company.
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Last year, McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated, “Why did we put all this money in real estate? We are not a real estate company. We’re a racing team and an automotive company is starting to clean up the balance sheet [at McLaren].
“I think the majority of companies in the world don’t own the properties that they rent.
“We’ve tied up a lot of money in this building, as you can imagine, and it’s not a very productive use of funds if you’re looking to invest in your business.
“So we end up selling it to someone. We’re going to get an extremely long lease and then use that money to invest in our business, to grow our business. So it’s pretty typical financial restructuring.”
McLaren’s financial position has improved since the first attempt to sell the factory. Last year the team arranged a £ 150 million loan with the National Bank of Bahrain and attracted new American investors, MSP Sports Capital, who bought a significant minority stake in the team for £ 185 million.
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