Rippers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6442101.stm

dojj

iTrader: (3)

papers are reporting that for the £500,000,000 they gave ford, ford will still retain 15% of the company and will provide stuff for them

which is basicly the same sort of story the bbc are saying

only another $22,000,000,000 left to find eh, come on ford, start repruducing parts for teh cossie and flogging them on ebay for ridiculous amounts, you'll soon make that money back

MATCOS

iTrader: (1)

That seems a good move as Prodrive have worked well with AM in the past and their new AMV8 conversion is supposed to be awesome
Just wish I could afford one

Rhys

Be interesting to see if they pull it off! I hope so

Mr S1

iTrader: (2)

Will be interesting Rhys - they'll need deep pockets and suspect the Kuwaiti influence will provide the money.

I hope I'm wrong, I really do but I'll be surprised if they pull this off as an acquisition and make it work. I don't think they'll have the money to sustain what Aston needs.

Franco

iTrader: (2)

Big prodrive piece in EVO this month, testing the DB9 rally car.........

That explains all the toying they've been doing to the Astons recently!

foreigneRS

could be good news for the british automotive industry and a boost to the midlands economy. better start writing my cv

Homer.

Awesome cant think of a better company to buy Aston

89xr2

Didnt Louis Vuitton have something to do with aston recently?

foreigneRS

will be an article on bbc news 24 soon (sky ch 503)

also something about the skiers that died in norway - i couldn't hear it, but they showed a picture of one guy wearing a ford fleece in front of (i think) a stickered up modeo. maybe one less ford fan in the world peter wilson from scotland, rip

andyhardy

I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea for Ford to sell Aston.

It seems strange their thinking of selling for such a low figure considering their original asking price but obviously I don't know the raw figures of turnover etc. However, if they're selling at half the asking price I'd expect them to keep closer to 50% equity rather than 15!

Ford are a mass production type company and I can see that Aston Martin would be more suited to a high quality, low production volume company who can cater for it's customers on a more personal basis. However, the rules for investing are to lose the investments you've made a consistent loss on and keep the winners. Aston has made profits for the last year or so, so it would seem strange to sell it on for anything less than it's top value.

I'm guessing that selling Jaguar would be a harder prospect though, as finding a buyer for a failing business is going to be harder than selling a successful one.

I personally hope the deal goes through - Dave Richards is very business savvy and I think the ProDrive brand will help with future sales of the cars. Plus the obvious technical aspect required to run a small production run performance car company

Cheers,

Andy