Billionaire poised to launch bid for major Aston Martin stake Autocar understands Lawrence Stroll, father of F1 racer Lance, is heading consortium looking to take a major shareholding in British sports car firm https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/billionaire-poised-launch-bid-major-aston-martin-stake Billionaire Lawrence Stroll is preparing a bid to buy a major stake in Aston Martin, Autocar can reveal following a joint investigation with RaceFans.net. Stroll, father of Formula 1 driver Lance and owner of the Racing Point F1 team, is estimated to be worth in excess of £2 billion, having made his money investing and building up brands including Pierre Cardin, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Asprey and Garrard. He is also famed for his car collection, which is most notable for including what many regard as the most valuable collection of classic Ferraris in the world. Both his business interests and car collection are reported to have given him the contacts to head a consortium looking to take control of Aston Martin, in the belief they can take advantage of its current low stock value and lower than expected sales prior to building the brand’s equity up again in future years, most notably by taking advantage of anticpated sales for the recently launched Aston Martin DBX SUV. Both the Racing Point F1 team and Aston Martin currently have bases at Silverstone, although Aston's headquarters are in Gaydon, Warwickshire. Lawrence Stroll declined to comment on the report when contacted by RaceFans.net. Contacted by Autocar, Aston Martin also made no comment. As a listed company it is bound my strict regulations in regards to official announcements regarding the stock market. Aston’s share price is currently hovering at around £5, up from a low of just above £4 but well down on its high of around £17. It’s majority shareholder, Strategic European Investment Group, part of the Italian private equity group Investindustrial, currently holds around a one-third holding in the company. The company has come under intense scrutiny since floating in 2018, with a valuation of around £5bn, and earlier this year had to issue a profit warning after substantially downgrading its sales forecasts in the face of slowing global demand for its products. In the first six months of 2019 it reported losses of nearly £80m.
Stroll made his fortune bringing the fashion brands to Canada. He is not involved in their manufacture outside of Canada.
Aston Martin is introducing their first SUV, our local dealer will have one on display this weekend. Maybe that will turn things around for the Aston Martin business. Assuming they now PAY Red Bull to be a sponsor, looks like they'd be interested in getting some money from Mr. Stroll and friends.
No, I think that Aston Martin will pull its sponsorship of Red Bull, and Racing Point will be renamed Aston Martin F1.
This, 100%. Huge marketing exposure as a factory f1 team and not just a sponsor of one. If there's a way to make money in f1 this is the way for them to do it - Aston has massively more marketing cache than "Force India", especially for luxury brands. Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault, Mclaren, and Aston Martin factory teams - I don't think we can lump Alfa in there as they're more title sponsor, but that's quite a line up. Would be awesome to see them do a tie in with the lemans hypercar category. Maybe that's asking too much....
That would actually makes sense. I can't see Aston maintening its sponsorship to a rival team in future if Stroll buys in it.
Quite a logical fit in some important aspects avoiding potential conflicting interests. Racing Point use Mercedes as their engine (and energy recovery systems) supplier - Aston Martin use Mercedes-AMG as their engine (and some electrical systems) supplier.
Rumour: Lawrence Stroll looking to rebrand with Aston Martin buy-in a possibility http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/704364/Rumour_Racing_Point_to_be_rebranded_as_Aston_Martin/ Reports circulating this morning are suggesting SportPesa Racing Point could be set for a rebrand with Lawrence Stroll being linked to buy-in at Aston Martin. Stroll bought the old Force India team in 2018 when they went into administration midway through the season. After saving the constructor, Stroll rebranded the team as Racing Point and moved swiftly in making his mark, bringing in his son, Lance as a driver to partner Sergio Perez. Reports coming out of RaceFans this morning suggest that the Canadian, worth more than £2 billion, could be interested in investing in the luxury sports car brand, which currently sponsor Red Bull. RaceFans report, that after an investigation in cooperation with Autocar Stroll is interested in taking advantage of Aston Martin's drop in value. The report also adds that Stroll would want to take advantage of Aston Martin's branding, wrapping the Racing Point car in their green colours.
Uh? You're misinformed. He developed the aforementioned brands worldwide with the help of his Chinese (Hong Kong) partner Silas Chou. They were/are the controlling shareholders of brands such as Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, etc.
Well, when Stroll Jr retires from racing he will need something to play with as CEO. Well, perhaps I'm stretching too much, but having met the gentleman, he will probably say to Horner: "dude, that second seat is my son's". Horner:"What? Why?" Stroll: "BECAUSE I OWN THE F@#KING SPONSOR! "
You're half right. 2020 will be a rerun of 2019. Lewis will tie Michael's 7 WDC. But in 2021, the grid will only be 16 cars. Lance will race at Red Bull, Max will go to Ferrari. Leclerc will go to McLaren, Alfa and Williams will go to FE, and Lewis will retire and F1 won't last long enough for anyone to match his and Michael's records.
F1 will be off my TV screen, long before it's dead. They keep it on the life support machine, but honestly, F1 is clinically dead. And it won't wake up anymore. Who killed it? FIA