Aston up for sale

[Cheib]

Just on the news wires that Aston's owners are looking for buyers....

• ASTON MARTIN OWNER SAID TO APPROACH SUITORS FOR U.K. CARMAKER

• ASTON MARTIN SALE SAID TO PROVE DIFFICULT BECAUSE OF PRICE

They owners are apparently looking for $800mil for their stake.....Toyota have apparently had a look at the books but gone no further.

I think BMW woul dbe a great fit....can't see anyone paying anything like $800mil for it.

Edited by Cheib on Friday 9th November 14:24

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LHD said:

It'll fit the profile though.

Jaguar for saloons and sports cars up to £80k.

Aston will fit the Super GT role for the supercars/big GT cars.

Same reasons work for BMW except better. They have the engines and chassis technology which would work very well in an Aston....JLR don't have a V12 for instance.

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Zod said:

Cheib said:

LHD said:

It'll fit the profile though.

Jaguar for saloons and sports cars up to £80k.

Aston will fit the Super GT role for the supercars/big GT cars.

Same reasons work for BMW except better. They have the engines and chassis technology which would work very well in an Aston....JLR don't have a V12 for instance.

BMW would be perfect. They have the world's best engines and they've shown they understand British prestige brands through their outstanding management of Rolls Royce. They also have the problem of being unable to persuade people to pay £100k+ for a BMW sports coupe, convertible or saloon. Owning Aston Martin would solve that instantly.

Which begs the question. Why haven't they done it already ?

I's such an obvious fit I really can't understand why they haven't done it. I read somewhere yesterday that BMW spends twice Aston's total turnover just on engine development and EV tech.

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Toyota are the only manufacturer linked so far. I don't think they're as well equipped as BMW but it's an obvious fit for them too.

I think the owners want too much, they own a great brand but it needs a lot of money spent on it which they clearly don't have.

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craigjm said:

RJJ said:

Agree with that, proven track record is a bonus & would inspire confidence they can put Aston Martin in the forefront again.

I still think they would be better of with Toyota. BMW could do what they did with RR because the brand was virtually dead and didnt really have any viable products so it was a start from scratch, Look with they did to Rover....

The Rolls Royce brand was dead ? Beg to differ.

BMW have also done pretty well out of Mini.....which was arguably more dead than RR as it hadn't been in production for a long time.

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Investment Dar have issued a statement that “it has a long term plan and commitment with Aston Martin and has no plans to sell Aston Martin in the short term.”

There was too much granularity in the original story for there not to be some substance to it. Could be that they have spoken to the obvious suitors and nobody wants to pay their price....

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Mr Aston Martin said:

However in this case I would suggest its more likely possible suitors will watch the decline of AML and the price.

Yup. My guess here is that Investment Dar approached buyers including Toyota. They looked at the books and think the asking price is too steep. The buyers have then subsequently leaked the story to the press to try and put pressure on Investment Dar.

We now have a Mexican stand off...Aston will get sold and for less than investment Dar want. If someone was going to buy it for that price it would already have happened.