Aston Martin may go public in three years
Since Ford sold it over a year ago, rumors have been flying around regarding a possible re-sale of Aston Martin by its current owners or a large purchase of shares by Mercedes-Benz. While all of these rumors have been denied, a public offering of the historic British brand has been mentioned in the past and is indeed likely. Aston's current chairman David Richards has again alluded to this option, saying that he'd like the company to go public sometime within the next three years. If you long for the opportunity to do your best James Bond impression in an Aston, but couldn't hope to afford one any time soon, perhaps a chance at owning a piece of the company itself would be a fair alternative.An initial offering on the London Stock Exchange could net £500 million for expansion of the storied British marque. Anything that would allow Aston Martin to continue offering its range of drop-dead beautiful cars is fine by us.
[Source: AM Online]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mobius_1 9:17AM (6/10/2008)
Hey, soon you can say "I own (a part of) Aston Martin" without shelling out so much money, and will likely gain from it as well!
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to_brag 11:43PM (6/10/2008)
Haha we're on the same wave length...closest ill come to owning an Aston so i'll be on the bandwagon when it comes time to purchase shares.
Peter NoWorkDay.com 10:14AM (6/10/2008)
quote:
initial offering on the London Stock Exchange could net £500 million for expansion of the storied British marque...
I understood that the total value of Aston Martin is that.
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rsfourever 10:21AM (6/10/2008)
This has bad idea written all over it. Any intelligent investor knows that Aston Martin has rarely made a profit in its history, and the only real times it did make money were the last couple of years when it was owned by Ford. Now that they are on their own again, it is going to take something special from Aston management to be able to turn the company into a long-term profitable business, and i'm not sure that it is likely...
this is the kind of investment no intelligent investor would make, so i have trouble seeing enough people buying this extremely risky stock...
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The Doctor 11:03AM (6/10/2008)
You seem to forget that the only reason Aston Martin lasted long enough to be bought by Ford was because it was propped up for most of its life by optimistic investors.
rsfourever 12:12PM (6/10/2008)
you may be right, but those "optimistic investors" owned large percentages of the company, enough to have major decision-making influence. This is an IPO, which means that it will all be common stock on the market, meaning people will be buying a few hundred shares and looking for dividends and stock price increases to provide returns on their investments. the people they are targeting with an IPO are not "optimistic investors," i.e. passionate multimillionaires who want to prop up a car company as a hobby. the people who buy common stock are real-life investors who are putting their hard-earned dollars at risk in hopes of getting good return on investment. this IPO, i'm afraid, is not quite that
Alex 12:36PM (6/10/2008)
"this is the kind of investment no intelligent investor would make"
good thing i'm not an intelligent investor