By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, January 9th 2007, 13:18 GMT
McLaren have announced that a company owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain intends to buy a 30 percent stake in the team.
The Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company has agreed to take over some of the shares that were previously owned by team boss Ron Dennis and fellow shareholder Mansour Ojjeh.
The deal now needs to be cleared by competition regulators, and that could take up to six weeks. Until that has happened, the team will not comment on the matter.
If the deal is given the green light, then it will result in DaimlerChrysler owning 40 percent of the team, the Mumtalakat Holding Company owning 30 percent, and Dennis and TAG Group (Holdings) SA holding 15 per cent each.
There had been intense speculation last year that Dennis was about to sell his shares to Mercedes-Benz, ahead of a possible retirement from the sport.
That rumours came to nothing, despite many discussions with Mercedes-Benz chiefs and parent company DaimlerChrysler and how to move the team forward
Speaking to autosport.com before Christmas, however, Dennis said that he and Ojjeh were open to any sale offers providing they both felt they would be of benefit to the team.
"I don't know how many times we have discussed it," he said. "We certainly discussed it last year. Obviously when you have these discussions inevitably you get into groups of people, and board members realise the sensitivities of the discussions. So sometimes elements leak out.
"I have said at Grands Prix and I'll say again: there are many opportunities that present themselves in our lives, as an individual and as corporations.
"Any opportunity that presents itself to this group, that can make it better, and is completely supported by its management who are non-equity holders, I would embrace it.
"But I would never endorse and nor would Mansour, a simple exit strategy. What we would endorse is something that can grow the group."
McLaren have made it clear that the team's current management structure will stay in place despite the change of ownership.
