Aston sells stake
Italian investment firm buys 37.5 per cent stake in Aston Martin for £150m
But Aston Martin has instead sold the 37.5 per cent chunk of the firm to Italian consortium Investindustrial, the £150m this will bring in part of a half billion pound spending plan aimed at reviving the brand's fortunes. Investindustrial previously held a stake in Ducati, before selling this to Audi.
Investindustrial joins the Kuwaiti firm The Investment Dar as backers for Aston Martin, David Richards saying "With this partnership and the continued commitment of The Investment Dar, we look forward to working with our shareholders as we realise our vision and exciting future plans." For Investindustrial's part senior principal Andrea Bonomi said "We are looking ... to achieve a similar transformation and rejuvenation that we achieved with Ducati by expanding the model range and strengthening the dealership network throughout the world."
Aston Martin has been fighting claims that its range has stagnated of late, telling PistonHeads earlier in the year that its Vertical Horizontal construction technique is 'more than just a platform' and, despite appearances, there is more to the product range than generic spin-offs from an increasingly overstretched base package. The new Vanquish and revised DB9 may look familiar but there's real development under the skin, says Aston.
It'd be nice to see a bit more evidence of that in the finished products - perhaps with a bit more money in the coffers we'll get to see just that.
It is also resonable to assume that some of Ferrari's R & D cost has been absorbed into the Fiat group as a whole notably the engine development work done on the new range of engines for Maserati (which Ferrari will also use). Porsche (obviously a much larger company than Aston or Ferrari) recorded approximately €1bn of expenditure on R&D in 2011 (not surprisinging considering the 991 and Boxster launches in latr 2011 early 2012.
The point is £500m sounds an impressive number but at best it levels the playing field with it's rivals in terms of investment in new product.
Italians buy heaviily into Aston Martin from Kuwaiti
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t...
Connection's still there.
Mercedes weren't interested so now hoping to be absorbed by another big player. Might be a fit with Bentley sharing a platform...
It is also resonable to assume that some of Ferrari's R & D cost has been absorbed into the Fiat group as a whole notably the engine development work done on the new range of engines for Maserati (which Ferrari will also use). Porsche (obviously a much larger company than Aston or Ferrari) recorded approximately €1bn of expenditure on R&D in 2011 (not surprisinging considering the 991 and Boxster launches in latr 2011 early 2012.
The point is £500m sounds an impressive number but at best it levels the playing field with it's rivals in terms of investment in new product.
I fear for AML, when it was on it's own it didn't need to compete on numbers. Now it's in a position where it's fighting some very healthy competition.
"Italian private equity fund Investindustrial has signed a deal to buy 37.5 percent of Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd from its Kuwaiti owner Investment Dar.
Investindustrial is investing 150 million pounds ($241 million) in Aston Martin in the form of a capital increase, the British car-maker said on Friday."
No news about how they plan to raise the other £350m but I will assume that the £150m wouldn't be on the table/going in now if there was a material uncertainty over that and we'll probably see some further clarification in due course but as with all private companies (and many public!) we will never be privvy to all of the salient facts.
This is good news for the future of Aston as a marque though IMO but the fact that such sums need to be injected now simply confirms that the Kuwaitis are not likely to see the return on investment that they might have initially hoped for.
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