Aston Martin to be Britain-??s Largest Independent Carmaker

Dedrick Fuhrmann

Move over TVR. Thanks to Ford Motor Company’s need for cash after losing $12.7 billion in 2006, the profitable exotic Aston Martin brand is about to be sold off to an all-Britishconsortium of private investors that couldn’t be more deserving.

The group, which includes Egyptian investor firm Naeem Capital, is headed by ex-F1 and World Rally Championship team leader David Richards and his firm, Prodrive, that currently runs Aston Martin’s Le Mans winning motorsport team.

Prodrive, which runs the Subaru WRX STi in the WRC, has long been toying with plans for its own supercar, but the opportunity to own one of Britain’s most prestigious sports car marques appears to be too tempting to pass up.

It’ll cost, however, to the tune of about £500 million ($967 million) according to a Financial Times estimate reported by the BBC, but considering the Warwickshire-based sports car maker is now profitable and has justrecently introduced a new low-end model, the Vantage V8, that is more reachable to buyers of higher volume exotics such as Porsche’s 911, Mercedes-Benz’s SL-Class, Maserati’s GranSport and Audi’s upcoming R8, its probably going cheap.

At this price, mind you, it probably won’t be an outright sale. Analysts believe that Ford will keep a minority stake, which makes sense considering that it currently builds A-M’s crop of V8 and V12 engines in a Cologne, Germany facility.

As long as nothing gets inthe way of the sale, a deal should be struck during the upcoming week.

It seems likely that Chairman Ulrich Bez, who previous to Aston worked for Porsche and BMW, will continue on as head of operations, which means that it will mostly be business as usual during the transition; good news for the 1,700 workers at its Gaydon manufacturing facility that are expected to keep their jobs.

On Ford’s end, or more specifically within its Premier Automotive Group (PAG) of premium nameplates that also include Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, Jaguar will continue to suck profits out of the other two money-making brands. Until new products come on-line to curb losses in Coventry, another sale could be forthcoming.

It would make sense that Ford would want to unload the leaping cat brand, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any takers. Land Rover and Volvo, however, would be hot prospects for any number of automakers, although Ford says they’re not for sale.

It should be noted that it wasn’t too long ago that Aston wasn’t for sale either, and with Ford’s falling fortunes and all-or-nothing bold move to mortgage the entire farm in one last attempt to turn things around, the more saleable fringe brands will be the first to go, despite the fact that they’re currently filling the coffers after two decades of money-losing investment; Ford purchased 75 percent of Aston Martin Lagonda back in 1987 and the remaining 25 percent six years later.

Unfortunately, at the rate the Dearborn-based automaker is burning through capital, the billion or so made from the sale won’t stretch very far.