Aston on the block? Buyers circling

Aston on the block? Buyers circling

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RDMcG

Original Poster:

19,512 posts

214 months

Saturday 11th January 2020
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Stock has performed very poorly and now the result is a change of control??


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-11...

cardigankid

8,849 posts

219 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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Bound to happen sooner rather than later. The DBX may be the greatest car since the Model T Ford, but it’s not going to come along in six months time, competing with Range Rover, Bentayga, Cayenne, Urus, Cullinan, whatever Ferrari have up their sleeve, and save a company which is One Billion Pounds Sterling in debt. How many DBX’s do they have to sell to bring that under control? And because they are not a subsidiary of a major operator, the customer has no confidence that they will be there is 12 months time to honour their warranties. Therefore the residual values get silly and they have to discount.

Notwithstanding all the brave talk, AM is going to into administration any day now. What is the brand worth? InvestIndustrial just want out at a profit. Stroll is surely not going to put £200m in without a significant amount of control. Is this the point where the Chinese buy a significant British car manufacturer? Are Geely up to this?

Rather than face up to the debts AM have accumulated, is it not better that the company goes bust and is sold without the debts as a prepack to someone who can make it work? That may be Benz, Geely or Stroll or any combination of the above. BMW could do it, but are they interested in trying. They are helping II with Morgan.

RDMcG

Original Poster:

19,512 posts

214 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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I think it very much depends on things like tax loss carryforwards, IP and so on. I would suspect they will become an acquisition target. Hopefully an organization that will give them some much needed capital

cardigankid

8,849 posts

219 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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Losses are losses but debt is debt. Who is going to take on £1bn of debt?

RDMcG

Original Poster:

19,512 posts

214 months

Monday 13th January 2020
quotequote all
Looks like Geely has taken a look and has passed:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-01...

cardigankid

8,849 posts

219 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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I don't think there is any means by which they can trade their way out of their current position, so you have to ask, is the brand worth a billion pounds plus whatever the other shareholders want, to give you a majority holding. I'm thinking no, so insolvency looms, I suspect. AM need to use that to reduce their cost base and establish a firm strategic partnership with a major car manufacturer.

JulianPH

10,074 posts

121 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
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Frankly, I feel Aston Martin has lost its way.

The DB9 and the previous Vantage were spot on the mark and only got better resulting in the DBS and V12 Vantage. Incredible cars.

The new Vanquish was also fantastic.

For me the problems started with messing about with the iconic side strakes to the point where they largely no longer exist. When a brand starts to dismiss the things (even little things like this) that help make it iconic then there is only one direction of travel.

The new Vantage and DB11 are undoubtedly incredible cars, to to many AM buyers they are Marmite and have lost some of the elements that make an Aston Martin an Aston Martin.

There is a reason people will pay more for a Vanquish (or even a 15 year old Vanquish S, for that matter) that they will pay for a used DB11.

Then we have the DBX, which as others have mentioned are going up against the like of Bentley (who just do interiors some much better than the, still very good, Aston ones), Range Rover (the best 4X4 IMHO) and others.

Getting back on point, I can't see how they can get out of the position they are in and much of this is there own doing, but I sincerely hope they can turn things round some how, probably (as has also been mentioned already) with a prepack.


Gweeds

7,954 posts

59 months

Friday 31st January 2020
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Aston Martin to enter F1 from 2021 under £500m rescue deal

Aston Martin has agreed a £500m equity rescue deal led by the billionaire Lawrence Stroll under which the British car brand will be used in Formula One racing from 2021.

The Racing Point F1 team controlled by Stroll will become the Aston Martin F1 works team for at least 10 years with effect from the 2021 season, the company said.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/31/a...


ZeroGroundZero

2,085 posts

61 months

Monday 3rd February 2020
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Gweeds said:
Aston Martin to enter F1 from 2021 under £500m rescue deal

Aston Martin has agreed a £500m equity rescue deal led by the billionaire Lawrence Stroll under which the British car brand will be used in Formula One racing from 2021.

The Racing Point F1 team controlled by Stroll will become the Aston Martin F1 works team for at least 10 years with effect from the 2021 season, the company said.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/31/a...
I thought the game of F1 was to first start off in a position of fortune in order you can then blow all that fortune in to dust ?

Good to see however that there is still people out there that value the AM brand and its possible future prosperity.
Or it is more likely the other way round, in that a 3rd party is trying to use what ever brand image that is remaining in the company to ring it dry of all its prosperity for the gain of another image ?

What ever it is, I hope AM the best of luck. Hoping that some how they can go back to their roots and produce involving machines that people want to buy.

Armchair Expert

2,994 posts

81 months

Sunday 1st March 2020
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So sad the British can't make cars. The French can, the Italians can, so do the Germans yet the British need the Germans, Japanese or Chinese to help them out.

Tazar

538 posts

199 months

Monday 25th May 2020
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And now Andy Palmer is supposed to be going this week according to the FT. This follows 2 board members leaving last month.
Palmer's replacement is the AMG boss being put into the position by Mercedes Benz.
Going back to this post heading, is the buyer eventually to be Mercedes Benz ?

HighwayStar

4,465 posts

151 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
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Tazar said:
And now Andy Palmer is supposed to be going this week according to the FT. This follows 2 board members leaving last month.
Palmer's replacement is the AMG boss being put into the position by Mercedes Benz.
Going back to this post heading, is the buyer eventually to be Mercedes Benz ?
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/official-aston-martin-names-mercedes-amg-chief-new-boss

RDMcG

Original Poster:

19,512 posts

214 months

Tuesday 26th May 2020
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In current economy it’s anybody’s guess but Daimler would be the logical candidate. I think Stroll will have a big influence.

sisu

2,757 posts

180 months

Wednesday 10th June 2020
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500 jobs going from Aston and share price going from £19 to 35p. If you were going to move, this would be the year to do it.