On September 30th, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Holding") announced that it had completed the acquisition of 7.6% shares of aston martin Lagunda International Holdings (hereinafter referred to as "aston martin"), a British ultra-luxury brand.
Geely always gives people the impression that it is "bought by buy buy", and there are countless automobile brands that it has "swallowed up". According to official website, Geely Holding Group currently owns brands such as Geely, Linklater, Krypton, Geometry, Volvo, Polestar, Proton, Lotus, London Electric Vehicle, Long-range New Energy Commercial Vehicle and Taili Flying Vehicle.
On December 23, 2009, Ford Motor Company and Geely Holding Group announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement on Ford’s sale of its Volvo Company to Geely, and all important commercial terms were agreed. On March 28th, 2010, Geely Holding and Ford Motor Company formally signed an agreement in Gothenburg, Sweden to acquire 100% equity of Volvo for US$ 1.8 billion, and Volvo became a brand of Geely Holding. On August 4, 2017, Geely Holding Group, Geely Automobile Group and Volvo Car signed a joint venture agreement, and Linklater became a tripartite joint venture brand, and the joint venture company was formally established.
Founded in 1983, Proton is a wholly-owned subsidiary of DRB-HICOM and the largest automobile company in Malaysia. Founded in 1948, British LOTUS is a world-famous sports car and racing car manufacturer. It was once translated into Lotus Sports Car, and its headquarters is in Hethel, England. In 1996, Proton Group successfully acquired the British LOTUS (Lotus Group) International Company, which announced its entry into the China market in 2011, and issued the official Chinese name "Lotus". On June 23, 2017, Geely Holding Group signed a final agreement with Malaysian DRB-HICOM Group to acquire 49.9% shares of Proton, a subsidiary of DRB-HICOM, and 51% shares of Lotus, a luxury sports car brand.
Proton went to Daimler Group after that (in February 2022, Daimler Group was renamed Mercedes-Benz Group). In February 2018, Geely Holding acquired about 9.69% of Daimler through its overseas corporate entities for 9 billion US dollars, becoming the largest single shareholder of Daimler Group. In March 2019, Geely Holding Group and Daimler Group announced that they would set up a joint venture company to jointly operate and promote the transformation of smart brand on a global scale. The joint venture company is headquartered in China, and each party holds 50% of the shares.
Geely Holding twice offered an olive branch to aston martin, but aston martin was unmoved. On January 11th, 2020, the Financial Times reported that Geely Holding was seeking to invest in aston martin, and had held talks with the investors and management of the company, but the result was inconclusive. Since then, aston martin has issued a statement that aston martin has reached an agreement with Canadian billionaire Lawrence Strahl, and a consortium led by Lawrence Strahl will acquire 16.7% of its shares for 182 million pounds (about 1.658 billion yuan), and a rights issue supported by Stroll and other major shareholders will further raise 318 million pounds (about 2.897 billion yuan).
In mid-July this year, while aston martin disclosed that it would introduce new strategic investors, it was also reported in the industry that the Atlas consortium, composed of Geely and Italian InvestIndustrial, had invested 1.3 billion pounds in the British sports car manufacturer. However, aston martin’s board of directors rejected this proposal, and eventually the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which holds McLaren shares, became the new major investor and the second largest shareholder, and the latter will invest 78 million pounds in aston martin and issue an additional 575 million pounds, raising a total of 653.8 million pounds.
The insiders believe that Geely’s shareholding in aston martin is reasonable, but the huge difference in business philosophy between the two parties has made Geely’s two attempts unsuccessful. Geely’s idea is to let aston martin participate in the competition in the mass market, but the latter insists on its own high-end positioning. As for why Geely Holding was able to complete the acquisition of 7.6% shares in aston martin, there is no specific discussion process at present.
According to the data, aston martin is a well-known sports car manufacturer. It was founded in March 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Banford. The company was originally named Bamford & Martin Ltd. In 1947, British entrepreneur David Brown bought aston martin Company. In 1994, david brown sold aston martin to Ford Motor Company of the United States and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford. In 2007, Ford sold most of its shares to a consortium led by British racing company Prodrive. In December 2012, the Italian private equity fund Investindustrial announced that it would invest 150 million pounds to acquire a 37.5% stake in aston martin. In October 2018, aston martin was listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Since the listing on the London Stock Exchange, aston martin has had a hard time, with its share price dropping by 90% for a time, and even falling into the mire of losses due to poor sales, so it had to issue bonds to raise funds.
Affected by the blockade of the China epidemic, the escalation of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, and the soaring cost, Aston Martin’s supply chain and logistics problems have become more serious, leading to an increase in its losses. According to the financial report, in the first half of 2022, aston martin sold 2,676 vehicles worldwide, with a pre-tax loss of 285.4 million pounds, compared with 90.7 million pounds a year ago. The board of directors believes that the proposed financing will further support the company’s reconfirmed medium-term goal, that is, to achieve the global sales revenue of about 10,000 vehicles and about 2 billion pounds by 2024-2025, as well as the adjusted EBITDA of about 500 million pounds, and generate positive free cash flow from 2024.