End Of The Chase: Aston Martin Sold To Italy
Aston Martin won’t be sold to the Indians, nor will it be sold to the Chinese. The low-intensity bidding war for the British boutique sports car maker was won by the Italian private equity group Investindustrial. It is buying 37.5 percent for $241 million via a capital increase agreed with majority Kuwaiti owner Investment Dar, Reuters reports after having received confirmation by Aston Martin.
Investindustrial beat tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra in a two-way battle. Dark horses like Geely, Toyota, or BMW, offered by the media as contenders, did not take part in the bidding.
The cash helps Aston Martin to invest $1 billion in new products and technology, and says, Reuters, to “compete with Volkswagen’s Bentley and rival UK luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.” However, in the car business, a billion dollar does not go far. The money is supposed to last through 2018.
Bernstein analyst Max Warburton told Reuters that is looks like a temporary fix because Aston Martin’s owners were unable to attract another car manufacturer to invest at the price they wanted.
“It doesn’t look like a long-term solution,” Warburton said. “This deal doesn’t sort scale, access to technology, emissions or entry to new segments.”
Aston Martin sold 2,340 cars in the nine months to Sept. 30, 19 percent down on 2011.
No agreement has been made on a technical partnership for Aston Martin with Daimler AG’s Mercedes.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I agree with the comment about AM's death being the result of Ford's takeover. The same can be said about Saab. I am sure that Volvo and Range Rover's death knell sounded when they were purchased too, just theres is a long painful slow death, and in the case of Range Rover, awfull to watch.
Best urban legend I heard about Jaguar. Ford sends some engineers to Britain to fix Jaguar's many electrical issues. Some Brits confront the Ford engineers and tell them "Well, we've always done it this way". Ford engineers: "We know, that why we're here". The truth? I don't know. Funny? Yes.
Aston Martin will live on as Ford Fusion coupe. But seriously - Ford made so many stupid mistakes in 90s like buying British brands and Volvo which Germans rejected for a good reason. All those money could be spent to develop RWD Lincolns and midsize Ford cars but never mind - it is America after all - wasting money is in national character. Or as Sir Winston Churchill said: "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else." So after wasting all hard earned cash Ford came to sensational conclusion that best thing to do is to spend money on itself (who knew LOL) and to do that they needed to hire Mulally! Bill Ford tried everything else except of right thing to do - his face looks so dumb - who in his right mind would make this guy CEO of major corporation? Only in America. In Germany or Japan he would have no chance. So essentially Lincoln gets same amount money (1 billion) as AM. We will see which one will survive.
Of course we know how great Germans are at managing car companies! Look at Daimler-Benz and the record of success with Chrysler, Smart and Mitsubishi! Or maybe BMW with Rover. Ford should have learned from their big wins when dealing with a high-tech, high-profit entity like Aston Martin.