British firm Aston Martin has announced plans to raise £653m in equity capital as it seeks to lower its debt and secure its long-term future.
First revealed by Autocar, the funding is set to include a £78m deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) in exchange for a 16.7% shareholding and up to two non-executive director seats on its board. PIF is already a shareholder in McLaren and Lucid. A further £575m will be raised through a rights issue, which is expected to be undertaken this autumn.
“Today’s announcement marks the latest success in the evolution of Aston Martin, the restoration of the business and balance sheet we inherited, and the acceleration of our long-term growth potential.," said Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll.
"Overall, this is a game-changing event for Aston Martin, supporting the delivery of our strategic plans and accelerating our long-term growth potential. It transforms our balance sheet, liquidity and cashflow profile and provides greater clarity on our pathway to become sustainably free cash flow positive and create significant shareholder value.”
In total, executive chairman Stroll's Yew Tree investment group, Mercedes-Benz and the new Saudi consortium are said to be investing around £335m in the firm, with a further £318m being raised through the public share issue.
As a result of the rights issue diluting its stake, majority owner Yew Tree's 22% holding in Aston Martin will fall to 18.3%. However, it has pledged to buy a further £105.3m stake in the firm as part of the new rights issue to increase its holding again.
Likewise, Mercedes's 11.7% holding will fall to 9.7%. However, it will invest a further £56m in the stock issue to increase its share again. The trading statement issued by Aston Martin this morning also confirms that the first fully electric Aston Martin, due to launch in 2025, is likely to utilise a Mercedes platform and technology, and that the partnership is likely to yield further EVs as the firm moves towards an all-electric future for its mainstream vehicles by 2030.
Aston Martin also revealed that it rejected a proposed investment package from a group called Atlas Consortium, led by car maker Geely and InvestIndustrial Group Holdings – which owns British sports car firm Morgan – totalling up to £1.3bn via £203m of investment and £1105m in an underwritten rights issue. The offer was unanimously rejected by Aston Martin's board stating it "markedly overestimated the company's new equity capital requirements, would have been heavily dilutive for existing shareholders and comprised a number of execution obstacles".
Aston Martin says it hopes to use the money raised to hit goals of 10,000 wholesales, £2 billion of revenue and £500m adjusted EBITDA by 2024/25. Its wholesale volumes for the first half of 2022 were 2676 vehicles, down from 2901 last year. It indicated it expects to hit more than 6600 wholesale units this year.
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Well I hope at least a tiny part of this investment goes towards what it would cost to change the infotainment from an 8 year old, 2 generations behind system to a modern bought in one!! I might then consider one above a Porsche. But not yet.
Completely agree with comments on the need for Aston to get rid of their design chief. The other day I saw a good example of why, on roads around the Cotswolds. A pair of highly polished DBX707 pre-production cars passed in the opposite direction at a junction, clearly out on a testing (or publicity ?) run. I had plenty of time for a good look at them... ...and they were ugly AF.
So it's not so much an investment plan, more a company struggling to pay off debts. Trying to run an also struggling F1 team can't be helping matters. Will Aston Martin still be around in a year's time - or will the F1 team be sold to clear off the next round of losses?
Aston doesn't own any F1 team. They pay the F1 team something like £21 million a year in sponsorship. Stroll has claimed that his F1 teams makes millions off the back of that sponsorship, leading some to question if he shouldn't be paying Aston Martin to license their name and branding.
As for if Aston Martin will be around in a year's time? They might not be able to raise the funds via their share issue so they might not be around before the year is out! Geely was turned down because they'd effectively buy out the company for the value of the debt, leaving exisiting shareholders with very little from what I can tell. So there is a desire to keep them afloat, but they may just wait until it fails and pick it up at a knock down price later.
Or it may just fail and nobody takes it on.
But if they continue to rely upon Reichman for design, and they are with the 2023 relaunched cars, it is hard to see how it can remain viable. His designs just don't find enough of a market. They're a mess to be honest! To continue with Reichman through yet another rescuse really is madness.
You have to fix the fundamental problems with Aston Martin. That is Reichman's designs not selling.
I stand corrected, thank you. But that being the case, I can't see how sponsorship of what is now a back of the grid racing team benefits the road car company. Maybe it would a couple of year ago when Racing Point were enjoying some success!
Force India was always able to hit higher than their budget would allow. I believe that was down to excellent management by Otmar Szafnauer. Then Stroll decided to put in Martin Whitmarsh as well, so Otmar left. I think Stroll was also trying to take control even before then, telling Otmar how to run an F1 team.
I can't blame him for wanting to leave.
How does the F1 team benefit thier road car operations? Well, they did keep sending out F1 mechanics to fix Valkiries that won't start on customer delivery. I guess they'll keep doing that for them too.
Past that, F1 was never linked to Aston Martin. It's a sport car company. Even the idea of a mid-engine car is crazy as it's a market already saturated, and McLaren made Ferrari raise their game in that arena too!
Good points Symanski, Aston as a car manufacturing business proposition is dead, assuming you inherit the company and its debt. The F1 link is as you say non existant and does little to nothing to promote sales of its road cars. Aston is finished as a profitable manufacturer, likely was some years ago, but there may be more 'johnny come lately' buyers like Stroll. Aston's only value is in its history, its heritage and its back catalogue, and to survive they need to align their business model accordingly. Think more Morgan, and less F1 and taking on the world at building sportscars. Those days are long gone.
B'9119,
Aston isn't beyond saving but the longer Reichman is there the harder it gets. If you wait for his 2023 refreshes it may be too late by then.
You've got to realise that McLaren sell about 4,000 units a year and are able to make a profit from there. Ferrari about 8,000. And Aston are sitting about 5,500 at the moment. In theory that should be enough, but the problem is very quickly after launch sales drop of each of their models. The initial excitement of a new Aston isn't sustained by people wanting to buy in. DBX sales are already dropping quickly and hence why they quickly rushed in a super powerful version. Sticky plaster fix.
The business model was based upon selling about 10,000 units a year, 6,000 of them DBX. That I believe was Plamer's plan, but they're doing about half of that spread over DB11, DBS, Vantage and DBX.
Vantage should be the one driving the numbers but the design is terrible. Any journalist revisiting is now saying just that - whereas they were silent on launch! DB11 isn't special looking, and the colours offered are poor, the car doesn't look great. DBS is just a design disaster. I used to see a dark blue DB11 parked and now the owner has changed to a matt black DBS. The DB11 looked dull, and the DBS unfinished. Parked next to it often is a V6 F-Type and I can't tell you just how much better it looks.
Moers realised the costs were too high and his only contribution was trying to get those down, which he did manage I believe. But still with the fundamental problem that if you don't get rid of Reichman the cars just won't look good enough to sell.
It's a business that could work if they sack Reichman. Look at the problem Lotus have with the Emira - they sold out! Or that people compliment the Ferrari Roma as being the best Aston Martin that Aston doesn't make!
Aston could be saved, but you have to sack Reichman.