Chinese vehicle manufacturing giant Geely has acquired a 7.6% stake in Aston Martin, completing a round of funding in which the British firm raised £654 million.
Geely, which owns LEVC, Lotus, Lynk&Co, Polestar, Volvo and half of Smart, was rumoured to be considering a stake in Aston Martin as far back as 2020, before Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll's Yew Tree consortium took control at Gaydon.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Strange for Geely to take a stake in Aston Martin. They could just wait 18 months and buy it out of administration.
This rights issue only buys them more time before failure, and that failure is not dealing with the fact that Marek Reichman designs don't sell.
They're betting the company, again, on Reichman designing desireable cars. Something he's successfully failed to deliver time after time. The updates for the 2023 model line probably won't change that.
Reichman has seen three CEO and two rescue packages. Yet nobody had done what Aston needs to save itself: Sack Reichman.
I completely agree. Marek Reichman needs to go. His designs are in a way interesting and flamboyant, but they don't sell. And the interior design looks so cheap compared to something like Bentley. If someone wants a flashy car there are much better options from Lamborghini, Mclaren etc.
Aston Martin should be about elegance, minimalism and beauty. Not about shouting the loudest (they will always lose that battle).
Aston Martin should have gone down the Porsche 911 route and just kept modernizing the beautiful DB9.