Aston Martin sold for £479 million

12 March 2007

  • Consortium takes 90% stake
  • Sale secures future for four-door Rapide model
  • Huge Ford loses of £6.5 billion in 2006 forced sale

aston martine rapide concept

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Ford has sold Aston Martin to a consortium led by British motorsport tycoon David Richards for £479 million.

Ford announced the sale at Aston Martin's home at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

The Richards consortium is backed by two Kuwaiti investment firms, and takes a 90% stake in Aston Martin. Ford retains the remaining 10% stake in the company.

Today's announcement secures the future of the four-door Rapide model, which was unveiled as a concept car at the Detroit Motor Show in 2006. It will enter production in 2009.

Ford has owned Aston Martin for the past 20 years. Huge losses for Ford of £6.5 billion in 2006 forced it to put the profitable Aston Martin brand, which saw sales reach all-time highs in 2005, up for sale six months ago.

Aston Martin's chief executive Ulrich Bez said he would continue with the company for the next five years at least. The company will remain at its current base in Gaydon, Warwickshire, and its 1800-strong workforce will be retained at current levels.

Richards won a World Rally Championship (WRC) as co-driver to Ari Vatanen in 1981. His Prodrive motorsport company already runs the Aston Martin racing team, and has also enjoyed success in the WRC, British Touring Car Championship and Le Mans.

New five-year plan
As a demonstration of its commitment to a bigger future for the brand, Aston Martin's new owners also announced that the four-seater Rapide model, revealed at the Detroit motor show last year, will go into production in 2009.

It will come into the Aston Martin model line-up alongside the V8 Vantage and DB9 coupes, the V8 Roadster and DB9 Volante convertibles and the DBR9 and DBRS9 competition cars.

The company's Vanquish flagship supercar, which was the last Aston Martin to be part-built at the company's Newport Pagnell factory, bows out of production this year; a replacement, possibly badged DBS, has been mooted for some time now, but no announcement on the project has yet been made.