Aston Martin gets $162 million funding boost to counter losses
Sports
Shares of the company famous for being fictional secret agent James Bond's car of choice jumped 5.7%
(Reuters) – Aston Martin will raise more than 125 million pounds ($161.9 million) through funding from its chairman and the sale of its stake in the Formula One team he owns, as the luxury carmaker grapples with ballooning losses.
Shares of the company famous for being fictional secret agent James Bond's car of choice jumped 5.7% to 69 pence in early trading on Monday.
Supply chain issues, delivery delays, and depressed demand in China have plagued Aston Martin in recent years, forcing it to raise capital six times since Chairman Lawrence Stroll took over in 2020, and cut 5% of its workforce.
Stroll has invested around 600 million pounds in Aston Martin so far. His Yew Tree Consortium will invest a further 52.5 million pounds by purchasing 75 million shares at 70 pence per share.
The investment, priced at a 7% premium to the stock's Friday close, "should greatly reassure shareholders", Stroll said in a statement.
The deal will increase his stake to about 33% from about 27.7%, and Aston Martin said Yew Tree had expressed interest in raising it further to up to 35%.
Yew Tree will seek a waiver from a rule that requires any entity owning more than 30% of a UK-listed company to make an offer to buy out the remaining shareholders.
It added that the sale of a stake in the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One team would help it realise a premium to the current book value of about 74 million pounds.
The carmaker said it now expects "modest growth" in annual car volumes, compared with its earlier forecast of mid-single digit percentage growth, based on its initial analysis of the potential impact from the Trump administration's tariffs in the United States.
