Kuwait Firms Buy Stake in Aston Martin

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• Bill Tanner "Spending the money quickly" iPosts: 261MI6 Agent

  March 2007 edited March 2007

  Not quite right... More on this from autocar.com:
  
  Aston Martin: under new ownership
  12 March 2007
  
  As predicted by Autocar last week, a majority stakehold in Aston Martin has been sold to a consortium led by David Richards. Richards is the British rallying magnate who won a World Rally Championship in 1981 alongside Ari Vatanen, and whose motorsport outfit Prodrive recorded numerous major successes in the WRC, the British Touring Car Championship, in Formula One and at Le Mans, and currently runs Aston Martin's Works racing team.
  At a press conference called at the company's Gaydon headquarters, Aston Martin confirmed that 90 per cent of its stock had been sold to the consortium led by Richards, and otherwise comprised of Texan banker John Sinders, and Kuwaiti investment firms Investment Dar and Adeem Investment.
  The agreed price for the majority stake was £480 million, says Aston; previous owner Ford, which will go on supplying engines and other primary mechanicals to Aston, retains a 10 per cent share.
  Richards in the chair
  The structure and organisation of Aston Martin will survive the transition of ownership largely unchanged. Prodrive and Aston will remain completely separate entities, but Richards will join the board of Aston directors as non-executive chairman. Ulrich Bez will continue as Chief Executive, however. "David Richards and I have a great deal of mutual respect for each other and we are equally passionate about realising Aston Martin's full potential," Bez said.
  The company will remain at its current base in Gaydon, Warwickshire, and its 1800-strong workforce will be kept on undiminished.
  New five-year plan
  As a demonstration of its commitment to a bigger future for the brand, Aston's new owners also discussed its ongoing product portfolio. "Every year, we hope to have a surprise for you," said Dr Bez, "and they will begin next year with our new halo-car, the DBS."
  "This will be different from the car that appeared in the latest James Bond film, and it won't be a direct replacement for the Vanquish either, because we prefer to carve out a new identity for the car" Bez explained. "However, it will be our flagship product, and it will use our VH platform."
  Bez also committed that the four-seater Rapide model, revealed at the Detroit motor show last year, will go into production in 2009. "We will make between 1000 and 2000 of these four-seaters a year, and will expand the Gaydon production facilities in order to be able to do that."
  Although it was brief and enigmatic, Bez finally made reference to a third new model called the DBX. While it might have been safer to speculate that this is Aston's internal name for the DB9 replacement, Bez' sentiments suggested that something more unusual could be on the menu. "In the long term, we have to look for growth beyond the current range of cars," he said.
  Perhaps an all-new kind of Aston is on the cards for the end of the decade; could Bez be tempted to follow his old employer Porsche into the SUV-making business?
• Bill Tanner "Spending the money quickly" iPosts: 261MI6 Agent

  March 2007

  And from carmagazine.com:
  
  Aston Martin is today under new owners, following the sale of Britain’s premier sports car company to an investment consortium.
  
  After 20 years of ownership, Ford divested itself of the brand, its facilities and its products, in a deal valuing Aston at £479m.
  
  The new owner is a consortium led by David Richards, boss of automotive consultancy Prodrive, who helped to unite two private investment companies from Kuwait.
  
  Adeem Investment, which already owns the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, has a portfolio worth $1.5 bn. The other company is Investment Dar, which boasts total assets worth $3.5 bn.
  
  While Richards, who drives a Vanquish with the number plate DPR1, will join the board as non-executive chairman, the mastermind behind Aston’s phenomenal growth and its return to profitability – Ulrich Bez – has pledged to remain as chief exec for the next five years.
  
  Speaking at a press conference at Gaydon to confirm the sale, Bez announced that the new investors had approved production of the Rapide, the four-door Aston concept unveiled in 2006. The sporty saloon will be on sale by the end of the decade.
  
  Lewis Booth, boss of Ford of Europe, acknowledged that it was a sad day for the Blue Oval, but added: ‘The agreement is good for Aston Martin, its work force and British industry.’
  
  Ford has been forced to sell to generate much-needed funds, as it seeks to turn around its loss-making North American operations. The company is restructuring, to downsize the business to fit its declining market share. ‘With Aston’s unique architecture and customer base, we saw it as a logical divestment to generate capital,' said Booth.
  
  Aston would also benefit from additional capital to continue its growth, he added. Ford has retained shares worth £40m in the new company.
  
  The deal appears to safeguard the immediate future of the Gaydon factory in Warwick, where all Astons are produced. Bez said the factory workforce had doubled to 1200 employees since 2000, while up to 2000 jobs had been created in the supply chain.
  
  ‘We have a deal and it’s a good one,’ said Bez. ‘There will be no change of direction. What will change is the speed and power at which we can work. Our aim is to become the world’s number one prestige car brand.’
• Bill Tanner "Spending the money quickly" iPosts: 261MI6 Agent

  March 2007

  Just to clarify, I think some of the reports are exaggerating the length of time Ford have owned Aston: Ford bought a 75% stake in 1987 but didn’t take full control, or ‘ownership’ from oil baron Victor Gauntlett until seven years later, in 1994.