Aston Martin gets £500 MILLION helping hand to survive

Aston Martin will get a £500 million injection to help it survive, as Canadian Billionaire takes a 20 per cent stake and shareholders dig deep.

Aston Martin has been ‘Cool’ since the 1960s, endlessly basking in the fairy dust of the James Bond franchise. Unfortunately, Aston Martin cool hasn’t exactly paid the bills.

Now, yet again, Aston Martin is in trouble, failing to perform as expected after its shares were listed, with share prices dropping by around 75 per cent, and not enough money in the kitty – or available from other means – to drive forward with its future plans. Which, basically, are to turn the new Aston Martin DBX SUV in to the sort of cash cow Porsche found with the Cayenne.

But now Aston Martin Lagonda has found a ‘White Knight’ in the guise of Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, a man who made his fortune with luxury brands and now owns the Racing Point F1 team.

A consortium led by Stroll is sticking £182 million in to AML for a 16.7 per cent stake – with plans to raise that to 20 per cent – with Stroll becoming Chairman.

On the back of the deal AML will tap up existing shareholders for a further £318 million with a rights issue (pay up or be diluted time), with the consortium – which also include JCB boss Anthony Bamford – bunging AML £55.5 million (as a loan) so it can pay the bills. It also looks like Racing Point will end up being branded Aston Martin works in 2021.

Lawrence Stroll said:

Aston Martin Lagonda makes some of the world’s most iconic luxury cars, designed and built by very talented people. Our investment announced today underpins the company’s financial security and ensures it will be operating from a position of financial strength.

Let’s hope this is a serious intent to drive AML to profitability, and not a billionaire playing games having tossed up between buying a football club or grabbing the world’s coolest car brand.