UK: Two bidders competing for Aston Martin stake - reports
By Dave Leggett | 26 November 2012
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Investindustrial, a European private-equity fund based in Switzerland, are reportedly bidding for a substantial stake to take control of Aston Martin.
Reports suggest that Kuwaiti investment group Investment Dar, which brought Aston Martin from Ford in 2007, is now looking to sell a 50% stake in the UK-based luxury sports car firm Aston Martin (perhaps best known as the car of choice for fictional British secret agent James Bond). A sale to Investindustrial was close to agreement last week, before M&M stepped in with a higher offer, according to reports. Investment Dar is seeking to reduce its debt with the proceeds, reports suggest, and is also keen to address questions surrounding future model development and funding.
A source quoted by Reuters said that Investindustrial had bid between GBP200m and GBP250m for the stake, and sees its proposal as technically superior, including a technical partnership deal with Mercedes-Benz.
However, the apparent interest of India-based M&M – a specialist maker of utility vehicles – raises memories of Tata's acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover from Ford, which M&M was also interested in acquiring at the time. Acquiring Aston Martin would give the ambitious group a globally recognised premium automotive brand. Some analysts say, however, that an Aston Martin bid from M&M may be something of a 'vanity project', with few obvious industrial synergies or overlaps between the two companies present.
Sectors: Financial, Vehicle manufacturers
Companies: Aston, Mahindra, Ford, Mercedes, Tata, Jaguar, Land Rover
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There are currently 4 comments on this article
Quote:"Ulrich Bez is in charge and he has an engineering docterate and history in automotive design. I can't see why that should change?
I hope Dr. Ulrich Bez will be able to handle the financiers, but just to hear about “private-equity fund based in Switzerland” gives me the shivers... Finance today is totally decoupled from real economy, and I can only hope AML will get adequate amount of money to pursue their developments. There is no such a thing as a “quick profit” in auto industry...
Mark Kmicikiewicz said at 8:09 pm, November 26, 2012
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