Aston Martin to Raise $162M – Including Some From F1 Stake Sale

Aston Martin makes big money moves 

Aston Martin is set to raise about $162 million via funding from the company’s chair, Lawrence Stroll, and the sale of the automaker’s stake in its Formula 1 team, which Stroll owns. The Formula 1 stake sale alone will raise at least $95.5 million, and Stroll’s investment vehicle, Yew Tree Consortium, will cough up an additional $67.8 million. However, the F1 stake sale won’t impact Aston Martin’s existing sponsorship deal for the team, ensuring its continued presence in the sport through at least 2030. Stroll’s son, Lance, has been driving for Aston Martin F1 since the team’s 2021 rebrand from Racing Point, which he joined in 2019. Lawrence Stroll said Aston Martin will continue to race in Formula 1 for “decades to come,” according to Forbes.

Positive public reactions increased the automaker’s stock

Stock for Aston Martin traded up 13.7% on Monday following an announcement of the company’s fundraising. Since Stroll took over Aston Martin in 2020, the company has been cornered into raising capital six times in addition to laying off 5% of its employees last month. Recent struggles are attributed to delivery delays, lower demand in China, and import tariffs imposed by President Trump. Stroll, who has personally invested around $775 million into Aston Martin, said the automaker’s stock increase compared to Friday’s close should “greatly reassure shareholders,” Reuters reports. Yew Tree’s Aston Martin stake is slated to increase from 27.7% to 33%, with a possibility of further growing to 35%. Typically, entities owning over 30% of a UK-listed company must offer to buy out remaining shareholders, but Yew Tree is pursuing a waiver of this rule. In other words, Yew Tree hasn’t fully committed to the idea of going private.

Aston Martin could still go private in the future

However, Stroll expressed strong feelings toward Aston Martin’s £650 million ($840.1 million) valuation. “The company is severely undervalued, and its stock market valuation of around £650 million is a joke,” Stroll said, according to Motorsport. As for any possibility of Aston Martin going private, we wouldn’t consider it impossible.

“Could it be something for the future? Potentially, yes. Never say never. Is it on my radar screen to do in the next fortnight? No, but never say never,” Stroll said.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, described how privatization of Aston Martin could benefit the automaker in the same Reuters report, saying that “Exemptions [to the 30% buyout rule] have been granted in the past, yet it feels like a takeover would be a better outcome as it would mean the car company would be free to pursue a turnaround strategy out of the public spotlight.”

Stroll hopes the company’s financial restructuring will attract active investors with deep pockets and make the racing team more competitive. Aston Martin F1 currently sits in seventh place out of 10 teams, and Stroll commissioned investment bank Raine Group to help find a buyer for the team’s entire stake. Saudi Aramco can exercise its contractual right to buy 10% of the Aston Martin F1 team if it chooses.

Final thoughts

From investing roughly $775 million into the company to bringing the brand back onto the F1 grid for the first time since 1960, Stroll’s commitment to Aston Martin since becoming chair in 2020 has been unwavering—but the company’s five-year stock decline of over 90% and newly-imposed US tariffs means the company will need an ace or two up its sleeve. Aston Martin’s CEO, Adrian Hallmark, noted that he believes the company’s new Valhalla model, which starts at around $1 million and is the automaker’s first-ever mid-engined supercar, will reposition the company.