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Kuwait firm puts Aston Martin stake in play for sale
The ink isn't dry on the contracts and the ownership transfer won't even be complete for another thirty days. However, Kuwaiti firm Investment Dar and its partner Adeem Investment Company are planning to put their stake up for sale. The consortium that purchased Aston was led by Dave Richards, backed by the Middle Eastern firms and American banker John Sinders. Using the best numbers we could find, Aston was sold for 479 million pounds, Investment Dar put up 240 million pounds, international banks pitched in 200 million pounds, and Ford retained a 40 million pound share. We don't know where the extra one million large went, but those are the numbers.
Investment Dar is the largest listed investment company in the Gulf. It says it has been getting bids daily and that it has planned to sell the stake, but we wonder if everyone knew that a sale would be in the cards and publicized so soon. According to Reuters, the Dar sale could happen any time, though it hasn't identified any bidders, and the firm would expect to make at least 20% profit. However, another story reports that Dar won't sell for at least a year and expects to make a 100% return on its investment. In the mean time, the company will help Aston focus on new models and expand its dealer network. Either way, we hope that this doesn't create any more instability for a great company getting back on its feet. And we really hope it doesn't do anything to interrupt the arrival of the Rapide.
[Source: Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike 9:38AM (5/07/2007)
What does it say about Ford, one of America's largest companies, that it could not have done the same that Prodrive will with the obviously under-rated Aston Martin?
I have trouble understanding how, with AM's heritage and performance and looks, you could NOT turn it around into a profit maker. Just the transfer from Ford to another company is going to make DAR 20%? That's a sad statement about Ford.
I guess Ford's management really is that weak.
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Paul 9:48AM (5/07/2007)
No doubt. If there's something of value that gets screwed somehow, there'll always be some kind of American in there pulling strings. Sure as night follows day.
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Shawn 10:07AM (5/07/2007)
You guys obviously are not familiar with AM history. It just managed to turn a profit. It was a failing company until Ford took over. Of course there are people out there that are willing to pay more for this company. I suspect the issue was that Ford wanted to match AM with a buyer instead of the highest bidder. When the new owner took over, they went for the money instead.
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Mohammad Ameen 11:16AM (5/07/2007)
Since Al Dar bought its stake in Aston Martin, many of the shareholders sold their stake in the company as they believe this was a major mistake by Al Dar. Everybody in Kuwait wondered about Al Dar move to buy Aston Martin and what outcome can take from a company Ford has lost hope with. Al Dar management went through a lot of stress in the past 3 months for buying Aston Martin and for their new big showroom adventure in Kuwait called AUTOCITY which dragged them in many law suites for importing cars from Saudi Arabia and Oman without understanding that those cars are not covered by warranty outside those two countries. Al Dar went in an advertisement war with Al Sayer Group, Toyota main dealer in Kuwait which refused to honor the warranty for more than 100 Lexus LS460. Al Sayer had the legal terms to their side and proved Al Dar made a big mistake. Al Dar was ordered by law to pay for the warranty fees which led to a very big loss.
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John Paul Rowan 8:42PM (5/07/2007)
I don't think that they could find that many buyers who would be willing to give them a 20% profit and not get control of the firm. It seems that they own just at 50%, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of multi-share structure that allowed Ford and the banks to keep a significant amount of ownership. It is sad to see a company such as Aston have such a hard time, just when things seemed to be heading in the right direction.
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