Aston Martin For Sale

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

This morning’s Financial Times reports that the Kuwaiti-based investment fund that owns former Ford subsidiary and British exoticar manufacturer Aston Martin wants out. After two years at the helm, with the luxury car market disappearing down the worldwide financial rathole, they’re “considering” offering majority interest to whoever’s got the cash to buy it. “The investment group has received several expressions of interest in a stake in Aston Martin as a part of the company’s plans to restructure its debt, according to people close to the situation.” Yeah, I’m interested too; does that count? Sorry. Too negative. Right. Anyway, how’s this for vague?

People close to the fund said that work on its restructuring was still at an early stage and it was still considering all options available to it to renegotiating its KD1bn (£2.4bn) debt, including a debt for equity swap or other asset sales, the people said.

Investment Dar met banks and investors on Monday to update them on the group’s restructuring plans. These have yet to be finalised and are to be presented on March 16.

The group told the banks that all avenues were being pursued, according to one of the people close to the restructuring.

In other words, Lotus?

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Andrichrose Andrichrose on Mar 04, 2009

    surely this Lagonda thing must be a joke , a last laugh on Kuwaiti money !

  • Willman Willman on Mar 04, 2009

    Man, I guess a lot of otherwise rich Kuwaitis must've rolled the dice writing Credit Default Swaps!?! Aston was one of the few brands that actually Did make $ for Ford; which now seems like a freaking miracle. The issue is not their margins, it's this: http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/wall_street200901?printable=true&currentPage=all Any carco should be rightly terrified of a tieup w/ MB. Just look at the Wizzard! they brought to Chryco. I guess a lot of people get Fearful in a recession, which according to Warren Buffet, is the best time to buy. -Let's set up an investment group and show those gutless Kuwaitis what's up!!! -now all we need is a few billion investors with $1 each; they shouldn't be too hard to find. WAIT!!! -Can AM apply for a Bailout, too??? :P @KMII, what particular variety of crack are you smoking?!? +The Vantage has done Great things for Aston. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't their volume+profit seller since it came out. I can't imagine what carco is actually run well, but AM needs the Portfolio approach (~opposite correlation; (it's 8 varieties for stocks)) if it has trouble banking $ or paying overpriced mgmt.; ie: a VW or Hoondai to keep selling bread+butter cars in the lean times.

  • Qwerty Qwerty on Mar 04, 2009

    Holy Moly! The rear is worse than the front. Catering to the hyper-wealthy was a good way to make money these past two decades. Going forward, it looks like a very dicey proposition. I don't think so. Without a complete rearrangement of the world's economy, the rich will do better than ever once the current crisis passes. The sheer size of the global market means that anything that is sold to a global audience can be sold in such huge numbers that the profits are astronomical even if the margins are thin. China and Russia have entered their own gilded age, and those governments are so corrupt that the situation could continue for a very long time.

  • Former Aston salesperson Former Aston salesperson on Feb 15, 2010

    As a former Aston salesperson I witnessed Aston releasing 2008 DB9s with faulty fuel pumps. They knew they were bad and would fail, but instead of replacing them before delivery, they decided to sell them as is and address the issue only after the pumps failed for the unsuspecting owner... Not the way a stand-up automaker should conduct business!

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