Some six months after Ford put Aston Martin up for sale, the specialty English sports-car maker has new owners. But we're assured that it is business as usual, since the management, factory and model strategy will continue on their present trajectory. Ulrich Bez has committed to remain as CEO for the next five years.
The overall price of the company is $925 million, not far short of Ford's initial $1billion price tag for Aston. Not enough to bail Ford of its present troubles, but it will be a small help. Ford retains a $77 million stake, so if Aston profits long-term, Ford will get a return.
The new owners are a consortium comprised of: David Richards, founder of Prodrive; John Sinders, an avid Texan Aston Martin collector and a backer of Aston Martin Racing; and Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co, international investment companies headquartered in Kuwait.
Richards will take the chairman's role at Aston. He is involved on a purely personal basis, separate from Prodrive, but his qualifications are immense as Prodrive is running Aston's sports-car racing efforts. He is also an Aston fan and owner. John Sinders is another Aston fan. He owns and races 'about eight' historic and modern Astons. It was Sinders who brought the bid consortium together.
Aston Martin sold 7010 cars in 2006. It is about to phase out low-volume the top-of-the-range V12 Vanquish, but the DBS, a new sportier variant of the DB9 based on the current James Bond car, will effectively replace it. The Roadster version of the V8 Vantage two-seater is just joining the range, and in 2010 a four-door based on the Rapide show car will launch. Then Aston will have an entire range of V8, V12, two-door, four-door and soft-top models all based on the same front-engine aluminium platform.
Bez says this platform, with regular updates, is good through about 2015. All these plans were put in place before the takeover, and both Richards and Bez say the new owners are totally committed to them.
The model plan also calls for an extra all-new car, internally called DBX, which will likely be a very high-end car. But Bez says its details have yet to be finalized; all he will say is that Aston won't go outside its regular market: 'We won't do an SUV, for instance.' However, he doesn't rule out going outside the Ford group to buy commodity components such as HVAC or even basic engine blocks.
In a way it's hard to see why Ford has sold. Aston Martin has been the subject of huge investment since 2000, getting an almost entirely new range and a new factory and HQ. It is now claimed to be making money.
However, the stock markets were pressurizing Ford to get some cash quickly, and a Jaguar sale proved impossible because no buyers were forthcoming. Ford is a mass maker: a very low-volume brand such as Aston was being run almost entirely independently, with few synergies. That made it an easy spin-off.