Aston Martin sold to David Richards.
-
Aston Martin has been sold from Ford to David Richards for approximately US$984million..Here's an article about it..
As predicted by Autocar last week, a majority stakehold in Aston Martin has been sold to a consortium led by David Richards. Richards is the British rallying magnate who won a World Rally Championship in 1981 alongside Ari Vatanen, and whose motorsport outfit Prodrive recorded numerous major successes in the WRC, the British Touring Car Championship, in Formula One and at Le Mans, and currently runs Aston Martin's Works racing team.
At a press conference called at the company's Gaydon headquarters, Aston Martin confirmed that 90 per cent of its stock had been sold to the consortium led by Richards, and otherwise comprised of Texan banker John Sinders, and Kuwaiti investment firms Investment Dar and Adeem Investment.
The agreed price for the majority stake was £480 million, says Aston; previous owner Ford, which will go on supplying engines and other primary mechanicals to Aston, retains a 10 per cent share.
Richards in the chair
The structure and organisation of Aston Martin will survive the transition of ownership largely unchanged. Prodrive and Aston will remain completely separate entities, but Richards will join the board of Aston directors as non-executive chairman. Ulrich Bez will continue as Chief Executive, however. "David Richards and I have a great deal of mutual respect for each other and we are equally passionate about realising Aston Martin's full potential," Bez said.
The company will remain at its current base in Gaydon, Warwickshire, and its 1800-strong workforce will be kept on undiminished.
New five-year plan
As a demonstration of its commitment to a bigger future for the brand, Aston's new owners also discussed its ongoing product portfolio. "Every year, we hope to have a surprise for you," said Dr Bez, "and they will begin next year with our new halo-car, the DBS."
"This will be different from the car that appeared in the latest James Bond film, and it won't be a direct replacement for the Vanquish either, because we prefer to carve out a new identity for the car" Bez explained. "However, it will be our flagship product, and it will use our VH platform."
Bez also committed that the four-seater Rapide model, revealed at the Detroit motor show last year, will go into production in 2009. "We will make between 1000 and 2000 of these four-seaters a year, and will expand the Gaydon production facilities in order to be able to do that."
Although it was brief and enigmatic, Bez finally made reference to a third new model called the DBX. While it might have been safer to speculate that this is Aston's internal name for the DB9 replacement, Bez' sentiments suggested that something more unusual could be on the menu. "In the long term, we have to look for growth beyond the current range of cars," he said.
Perhaps an all-new kind of Aston is on the cards for the end of the decade; could Bez be tempted to follow his old employer Porsche into the SUV-making business? Watch this space. -
So, have fun discussing everything about Aston Martin here..
-
When will me ever have moniee to buy me fav wagon?
-
Whoa, did'nt know ford was the previous owner of AM.
-
Haha..you didn't know? Then there will be more shocking news..The James Bond movie signed a deal with Ford, where Ford will supply cars for the James Bond movies coming up..Thus Ford supplied them with Aston Martins since AM is under Ford..So for the Casino Royale movie, James Bond drove the Aston Martin DBS..and James Bond also drove the new Ford Mondeo briefly..but since now Ford has sold away Aston Martin, the next car that Bond is going to drive in his next Bond movie is a Jaguar!! LOL..a Jaguar C-XF (which is the new S-Type) to be exact..FYI, Jaguar is also under Ford..haha..Originally posted by sand king:Whoa, did'nt know ford was the previous owner of AM. -
Eeeeeeeeeee... Bond car should always be AM.. nothing else.
-
Well, then it's just too bad Ford sold away Aston Martin..lol..
-
Richards's Prodrive will be competing in F1 next year.
-
The list of car brands under Ford Motor Company:
- Ford
- Mazda
- Volvo
- Jaguar
- Land Rover
- Lincoln (Not available in Singapore)
- Mercury (Not available in Singapore)
- Aston Martin (Sad to say... as TS pointed out, sold already) -
Id I did not remember wrongly, I read an article regarding the prospective buyers of Aston Martin.... Maybe it was frm the newspaper, i forgot... But the author did mention that Singapore should consider buying the brand since we are looking at going back into the car manufacturing industry... He also mentioned that China was a very high potential buyer of the brand... and tht really makes us wonder what will happen to Aston Martin's reputation and reliability if it reallt got bought over by some company in China... Luckily it's not the case...
-
haha the Ford Vanquish DB-Type?Originally posted by alleggerita:Haha..you didn't know? Then there will be more shocking news..The James Bond movie signed a deal with Ford, where Ford will supply cars for the James Bond movies coming up..Thus Ford supplied them with Aston Martins since AM is under Ford..So for the Casino Royale movie, James Bond drove the Aston Martin DBS..and James Bond also drove the new Ford Mondeo briefly..but since now Ford has sold away Aston Martin, the next car that Bond is going to drive in his next Bond movie is a Jaguar!! LOL..a Jaguar C-XF (which is the new S-Type) to be exact..FYI, Jaguar is also under Ford..haha.. -
Originally posted by freakass:The list of car brands under Ford Motor Company:
- Ford
- Mazda
- Volvo
- Jaguar
- Land Rover
- Lincoln (Not available in Singapore)
- Mercury (Not available in Singapore)
- Aston Martin (Sad to say... as TS pointed out, sold already)
Aston Martin -
There were even more ridiculous rumours when it was still a mystery who bid for Aston Martin..haha..one of the more crazy rumours is that LVMH bid for Aston Martin..LOL..LVMH is the luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton..haha..can you imagine a Aston Martin DB9 with the classic LV printing as it's paintjob? LOL..
-
Lol a AM that looks like a LV hand bag? hahaOriginally posted by alleggerita:There were even more ridiculous rumours when it was still a mystery who bid for Aston Martin..haha..one of the more crazy rumours is that LVMH bid for Aston Martin..LOL..LVMH is the luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton..haha..can you imagine a Aston Martin DB9 with the classic LV printing as it's paintjob? LOL.. -
now after the sale of aston martin, ford is going to make current jaguar as exclusive cars... you would no longer see them the way u see a 5series or e-class. Only if they make more beautiful cars. I find thei current s-type and especially the x-type rather bland. hope their new s-type replacement is gonna be good.