Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Aston Martin will raise more than £125mn as the US moves ahead with Donald Trump’s tariffs, with the sale of its minority stake in the Formula 1 racing team and additional investment from its chair Lawrence Stroll.
In an interview on Monday, chief executive Adrian Hallmark said the UK luxury-car maker would still aim to return to profitability this year through a combination of vehicle price increases, cost-cutting and higher margins on customisation offers to counter the tariffs.
“It’s not catastrophic. It’s a problem, but we can manage our way through it,” Hallmark said.
People close to the company said Aston Martin expected as much as a £30mn hit to its gross profit as a result of the 25 per cent tariff the US will soon impose on imports of foreign cars. Analysts had been estimating £30mn in earnings before interest and taxes for 2025.
The carmaker is exposed since it does not manufacture its vehicles in the US, although the market accounts for 30 per cent of its annual sales.
The lossmaking company, which is also owned by China’s Geely and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, lowered its volume outlook for the year on Monday, citing an initial analysis of the impact from Trump’s tariffs.
It said it now expected “modest growth” in volumes compared with its earlier forecast for “mid-single digit percentage growth”.
The group will raise £52.5mn by selling 75mn new shares to Stroll’s consortium, which would increase its stake in the group to 33 per cent from 28 per cent.
Shares in Aston Martin rose 13 per cent on Monday after falling 43 per cent since announcing an operating loss of £100mn in late February.
“Today’s announcement is really about showing my continued long-term unwavering support and commitment to the company,” Stroll said. “The tariff was a coincidence.”
Aston Martin will also aim to sell its roughly 5 per cent stake in equity and warrants in the F1 team at a valuation of £74mn, which compared with a book value of £50.9mn at the end of December.
The latest sale gives the racing unit a book value of about £1.5bn, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction. AMR GP was valued at about £1bn when Stroll first brought in Arctos Partners, the sports-focused private equity group.
The carmaker first invested in AMR GP Holdings, the F1 team’s holding company, in late 2023 but sold some of its shares last year.
F1 team valuations have risen since Stroll bought his team, originally called Force India then rebranded as Racing Point, in 2018. The team in which his son, Lance, races was renamed Aston Martin in 2021.
Source link
