Aston Martin F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll is raising £250 million through a bond issue to pay for the expansion of its factory.
The team formally broke ground on the massive extension to its existing premises in September. The new facility will cover 37,000 square metres and is expected to cost between £150 and 200 million to build.The £100 bonds to raise capital for it will be issued over a five-year period and pay a rate of 7%.
Stroll promised his team will have “the newest, state-of-the-art facility” once work is completed by the beginning of 2023.
Aston Martin’s plans for its factory on Dadford Road in Silverstone include the construction of a new wind tunnel and simulator. The existing premises will be expanded by the addition of two new buildings.
“I am delighted that we will be issuing a bond through the London Stock Exchange to raise additional funding for the development and construction of our new Formula 1 campus,” said Stroll.
“We are excited by the chance to offer investors, and most importantly Formula 1 fans, the opportunity to be a part of Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 Team’s journey and participate in our ultimate ambitions – to achieve world championship success and advance the value creation of the team.”
Aston Martin has also embarked on an ambitious recruitment drive. It recently appointed former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh as its group CEO after attracting several major hires from rival teams.
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Adam (@rocketpanda)
13th October 2021, 12:43
This seems a lot money and space just to build a discount Mercedes.
M1 (@mr-neese)
14th October 2021, 5:16
“the best or nothing”
regs (@regs)
17th October 2021, 11:02
It’s Astroll Martin
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
13th October 2021, 12:46
Fully leveraging the company for a new building. Nice.
Denis (@denis1304)
13th October 2021, 13:58
McLaren sold their factory…
Alberto
13th October 2021, 14:49
They sold the building to finance the company. Not sold the company to finance a new building :D
anon
13th October 2021, 21:18
Alberto, in July this year, the McLaren Group issued £400 million in preferential shares and equity warrants to raise funds for their operations, with most of that money coming from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. On top of that, McLaren also arranged for Mumtalakat to lend the company £150 million, and in August this year the McLaren Group sold off the Applied Technologies division for an undisclosed sum.
Back in 2020, the McLaren Group had already asked for another £300 million in equity, sold off a stake valued at £185 million in the racing team, arranged a £170 million deal to sell off and then lease back their facilities in Woking and was, at the very least, reported to be considering mortgaging all of their historic racecars to raise money. For good measure, there’s also been the 1,200 job cuts that they’ve been making to try and save costs.
In the space of 18 months, McLaren’s asked for more than £1.2 billion, and a lot of that is simply to refinance existing liabilities that are coming up in 2022 – are they really all that different in the end?
Alberto
13th October 2021, 13:28
They are taking too many financial liberties with an already not very financially stable old brand. Hope he is in it for the long haul to see the other side of the tunnel rather than staying until his son is too old to keep up with others.
Dave
13th October 2021, 14:13
Top tip: using the search term “Aston Martin Bond” in Google won’t take you to any further information on the issuance of this financial instrument!
Robbie (@robbie)
13th October 2021, 14:36
Lol
Jockey Ewing
13th October 2021, 14:50
👍
No high ranking hits even by narrowing down the search to the last 24 hours! Trying to be clever not helped me :)
G (@unklegsif)
13th October 2021, 14:50
Comment of the Decade!
Mayrton
13th October 2021, 16:34
Hahaha
Robbie (@robbie)
13th October 2021, 14:54
“Stroll raising £250 million to fund new Aston Martin F1 factory….” Picks up missing wallet from under the couch.
John H (@john-h)
13th October 2021, 15:45
The people in that render appear to have eaten Caesium-137 for breakfast.
Robbie (@robbie)
13th October 2021, 15:56
Lol, they sure have hired some bright people.
Balue (@balue)
13th October 2021, 16:32
:D
pSynrg (@psynrg)
13th October 2021, 17:58
@john-h Surely Come on, they just had Ready Brek for breakfast.
John H (@john-h)
13th October 2021, 22:52
Wow that’s a blast from the past @psynrg!
Thomas Bowman
13th October 2021, 18:39
Lots of comments about how this is a bad idea or whatever but let us not forget Old man Stroll knows a thing or two about big business.
SteveR
13th October 2021, 19:06
My take is this is an addition to the F1 team facility, not the car manufacturing arm.
Balue (@balue)
13th October 2021, 19:51
£250 million is crazy money. Stroll really is serious.
jff
13th October 2021, 21:44
7% – that’s a junk bond rate.
I guess the financial markets are not so convinced yet that this will all work out.
Patrick (@paeschli)
13th October 2021, 23:14
With all the money Stroll has, why is he paying 7% to investors for lending Aston Martin money when he could perfectly lend the money himself?
The Dolphins
14th October 2021, 1:32
@paeschli he is worth a lot of money, doesn’t mean he has a lot of cash in the bank. Rich people have their money to making more money. If Stroll was to sell off some assets to get the 250m in cash he would incur taxes on the sale meaning he would need to sell more than 250m worth, a lose-lose.
Also if AM is issuing bonds at 7% they have a plan to make more money in order to cover their return to the investors plus make money back. They announced earlier this month a plan to get to 1b in 5 years.
Rich people get rich by making money using other people’s money. That’s the trick.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
14th October 2021, 8:13
I would say Stroll is planning on being a developer and supplier of advanced automotive tech. That would explain his willingness to leverage the building to pay for the construction, possibly already has deals in the pipeline.
Also does anyone know what type of tax or other concessions he may be receiving for building the plant where it is?