Aston Martin parent company Aston Martin Lagonda has denied the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – its largest shareholder – is looking to increase its ownership stake and delist the company from the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
A November 14 report in the Financial Times suggested AML executive chairman, Lawrence Stroll, had begun negotiations with PIF to up its current 19.5 per cent stake, but the automaker told PlanetF1.com: “Aston Martin is not in talks with PIF about being taken private”.
Mr Stroll has the second largest stake in AML with a 16 per cent share, ahead of other high-profile stakeholders including Geely chairman Shu Fu Li (14.9 per cent), Swiss investor Ernesto Bertarelli (13.8 per cent), and Mercedes-Benz (7.5per cent).
As reported by PlanetF1.com (Aston Martin fields a team in Formula 1), AML was listed on the LSE in 2018 but has lost more than 98 per cent of its value since then.
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In October, it announced a higher-than-expected pre-tax loss of £106.9 million ($A216.2m) for the July-September quarter.
After the loss, the company said it would cut development spending on new models by £300 million over the next five years.
In February 2025, newly installed Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark declared his goal of making the iconic brand sustainably profitable by 2029, defying the brand’s long history of loss-making vehicles.
“To be the first guy in 112 years to make Aston Martin sustainably profitable – when I believe there is a way to do so – was irresistible,” Mr Hallmark told Automotive News.
“If it doesn’t work, nothing lost. If it does, we’ve done it.”
In reducing costs, the company’s Formula 1 team – managed by Mr Stroll and including his 27-year-old son Lance as one of its drivers – was sold for £108 million ($A218.4m) to improve cash flow.
The company also races in the top Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) for sports cars, with rival Porsche recently pulling out of the series after the German brand posted larger than forecast losses on electric models and slow sales in China.
After delaying its previously planned introduction of electric vehicles (EVs), Aston Martin’s global sales to the end of September 2025 fell by 17 per cent year-on-year.
This month, US ratings agency Fitch downgraded AML’s debt rating due to long-term negative cash flow and uncertainty around sales due to volatile US tariffs.
The US is Aston Martin’s biggest market, making up 32 per cent of its total sales in 2024.
On April 2, 2025, the US introduced automotive import tariffs, with subsequent ‘reciprocal’ tariffs also adding to the burden on foreign car companies like Aston Martin.
Aston Martin builds all its road cars in the UK, split across its Gaydon and Newport Pagnell facilities in England, with a third plant at St Athan in Wales where it builds its most popular model, the DBX SUV.
It paused shipments to the US in April because of the tariffs, resuming imports in June with higher prices – but was later also thwarted by supply chain issues caused by a cyber attack at Jaguar Land Rover.
The company expects a better result in 2026 after this year’s challenges, but analysts suggest it still won’t be profitable until at least 2028.
Aston Martin’s only SUV, which gained a new 542kW DBX S flagship earlier this year, accounted for more than one-third of its total sales in 2024, while the DB12 S sports car was added to the UK lineup earlier this month and is due for release in Australia by March 2026.
An updated version of the Vantage S coupe, taking power beyond 500kW, is also due in Australia next year.
The Valhalla hybrid supercar – limited to 999 units globally, 150 of which will be delivered this year – was also introduced in 2025, as Aston Martin continues to delay adding EVs to its range.
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