Exit plan for Aston Martin's Kuwaiti shareholder

CAR DEAL: Investment Dar could offload its 50 percent stake in Aston Martin by 2013. (Getty Images)

Aston Martin shareholder Investment Dar could be planning to offload its 50 percent stake in the British car manufacturer by 2013, the company chairman said.

Speaking exclusively to Arabian Business, Aston Martin chairman David Richards said the car company’s planned initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange in the next “three to five years” could signal the Kuwaiti investor’s exit from the business.

“It’s [the IPO] certainly a long-time option as an exit plan,” Richards said. “Everyone has to have an exit plan for everything; it doesn’t have to be a total exit but there needs to be a plan in process and these things are never kept on a shelf forever. Investment Dar needs to, at some point, realise the assets for its investors.”

Richards, who was in the Middle East to promote Aston Martin’s Vantage GT4 and Le Mans race cars, also said raising the company’s profile in this region is on the agenda.

“We’re looking at re-launching Aston Martin here in the Middle East where it has been known for years but perhaps hasn’t had the level of investment or awareness it deserves,” he said.

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READERS' COMMENTS

The last of the British Motor Vehicle Manufacturers...
Posted by Stephen, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 10 December 2008 at 14:24 UAE time

Well I hope that Aston once listed stays British... everything else British is either owned by someone else, on its last legs, dead or in some cases forgotten, which is sad really, as Britain has always been at the forefront of motor vehicle innovation, technology dating back to the industrial revolution...

AC
Austin
Jensen
Lotus
Jaguar
Rolls Royce
Bentley
Leyland
Bedford
TVR
MG
Marcos
Caterham
Westfield
Morgan

Let's wait and see...

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