The money is talking loudly in Gaydon this week after Aston Martin's Italian and Middle Eastern investors committed £200 million ($307 million) for the British sports-car maker's first-ever crossover SUV, among other products slated for the decade's end.
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The company's two major private-equity shareholders, the Italian Investindustrial and the Dubai-based Tejara Capital, have together purchased £100 million in new shares and will buy the rest within a year. Basically, everything we already knew was coming to production—the plug-in hybrid DBX crossover, a Rapide successor in the mold of the Lagonda Taraf, and replacements for the entire two-door lineup—has been officially confirmed.
-"The DBX concept has generated interest far beyond our expectations," CEO Andy Palmer said in a statement. "The additional investment announced today will allow us to realize the DBX and other new luxury vehicles that will form the strongest and most diverse portfolio in our history."
-Aston Martin has already secured about $838 million in funding through 2017, which brings the total amount to nearly $1.5 billion that Palmer said would "broaden our presence in the luxury market segment by the end of the decade." As for profit, last year, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (or EBITDA in accountant-speak) were £66 million ($101 million). With all of those items added back, Aston posted an operating loss of £18.4 million ($28.2 million) compared to a $2.5 million operating profit in 2013.
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- Deep-Fried DBX: Aston Martin Looking to Build Electric Crossover in U.S. South -
- "Rapide" Indeed: Aston Martin Developing Electric Rapide—with 1000 Horsepower? -
- Instrumented Test: 2015 Aston Martin Vanquish -
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But balance sheets are cold, soulless things that don't reflect the true value of Aston's handmade beauties. The Vulcan and Vantage GT12 track-focused models are coming, Daimler has a five-percent stake and will be supplying Aston with engines and other desperately needed modern technologies, and, with Palmer at the helm, the company is intent on growing sales to 7000 per year, opening a second assembly plant, and becoming profitable by at least two years from now. For an independent supercar manufacturer that's managed to stay alive—mostly by the skin of its teeth—for 102 years, that's about as calm a storm as Aston might ever see. We can't wait to see the results now that the clouds have parted, at least for the near term.
-from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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