Aston Martin is reportedly for sale. The largest shareholder is seeking to sell its stake in the British carmaker and has approached already several potential investors, including Toyota.
The manufacturer of luxury sports cars had been owned by Ford before Investment Dar Co. bought 64 percent of Aston Martin for 503 million pounds ($805 million) in 2007. According to Businessweek, the Kuwaiti shareholding company is in need of cash and wants to fetch about $800 million for its stake. But investors haven’t been willing to match the price Investment Dar Co. paid five years ago.
One of the potential investors is Indian manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra, which has been approached recently. Another candidate is the Toyota Motor Corporation. The Japanese carmaker is rumoured to have conducted a preliminary study into buying a stake in Aston Martin two months ago, but this hasn’t advanced into a complete evaluation. Toyota and Aston Martin already collaborate in the Cygnet, which in fact a rebadged Toyota iQ.
Aston Martin is currently the only global luxury brand that isn’t part of a larger auto group. Other carmakers benefit from spreading development costs and technologies across brands and models. Jaguar is a subsidiary of Tata Motors, Ferrari and Maserati belong to Fiat, and Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche are all part of the Volkswagen Group. From this point of view, getting closer involved with Toyota or any other carmaker would surely benefit Aston Martin.
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