Aston Martin secures £50mn cash injection to shore up balance sheet
Funding from consortium backed by billionaire Lawrence Stroll comes after fifth consecutive quarterly loss
Aston Martin has secured a fresh £50mn funding from a consortium backed by its chair as the struggling carmaker fell to a fifth consecutive quarter of losses and warned of continuing geopolitical uncertainty.
The group — whose shareholders include Aston’s billionaire chair Lawrence Stroll, China’s Geely and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — has struggled for years to generate steady cash flow and profits. Its shares and bonds have sunk to record lows recently amid concerns about the pace of its cash burn.
Adjusted losses before tax and interest decreased to £56.9mn in the first quarter compared with a £64.5mn loss a year earlier, the British carmaker reported on Wednesday, beating analyst expectations of a £63.7mn loss.
During the first quarter, its net debt increased to £1.5bn from £1.3bn a year earlier. Its free cash flow improved to £117mn from £120mn following the £50mn sale of its Formula 1 naming rights to AMR GP Holdings, the racing team’s holding company that is indirectly controlled by Stroll.
The carmaker has turned to the Canadian billionaire multiple times to shore up its balance sheet. Last year, Aston Martin raised £52.5mn by selling 75mn new shares to Stroll’s consortium, which increased its stake in the group to 33 per cent from 28 per cent.
“Further financial improvement is expected through the rest of the year as we benefit from our expanding core model range, continued Valhalla deliveries . . . and ongoing operational discipline,” said its chief executive Adrian Hallmark.
In February, the company issued a profit warning and confirmed plans to reduce its worldwide workforce by up to 20 per cent.
For 2026, the carmaker maintained its projection that its wholesale volumes would remain flat at about 5,450 vehicles while its gross margin was expected to improve into the upper 30 per cent level compared with 29 per cent last year.