Daimler confirmed that it raise participation in Aston Martin with 1% on July 31 at 5%.
Aston Martin is not in a very comfortable position these days. After the Ford era, which ended in 2007, Aston Martin remains one of the few independent carmakers but is not easy to survive due to important investments needed for new generation of models.
In 2007, a consortium led by David Richards purchased 90% of Aston Martin with 475 million pounds. The consortium include american banker John Singers and two Kuwaiti companies Investment Dar and Adeem Investment. At the end of 2012, Investment Dar sold 37,5% of Aston Martin to Invest industrial lead by Andrea Bonomi. This mean that Aston has today four investors.
5%
stake has Daimler in Aston Martin
Currently, Aston Martin uses Ford V8 and V12 engines which are made in Koln, Germany, on a special line. Since Ford does not use anymore either of these engines they not have any direct benefit.
Having this picture in mind, is very clear that Aston Martin needs a new propulsion system and for this reason signed last year a contract with Daimler to supply new Mercedes AMG powerplants V8 and possibly V12 for the next generation line up of Aston Martin. The aquisition of further 1% stake by Daimler will eliberate useful extra funds for company located in Gaydon which faces huge investment bills for an independent company. In adition to supply AMG engines, Daimler will also provide electrical architectures to Aston Martin. Cooperation between Aston Martin and Daimler could be enlarged with other two projects. Aston confirmed revival of Lagonda brand with a luxury sports saloon and a luxury SUV is also in discussion. The base for this SUV could be Mercedes GL platform.
