Aston Martin has been rescued by a £500m investment

Aston Martin has been rescued by a £182 million investment from Lawrence Stroll, owner of Racing Point F1. Also chipping in another £318m are many of the existing shareholders. As part of the deal, the Racing Point team will become Aston Martin Racing from 2021.

And make no mistake, this £500m package is indeed a rescue. Aston had done so badly in the past year that getting the vital DBX SUV into production was beginning to look unlikely. This deal should secure that future.

During last year, sales of the Vantage were merely OK, and they had to support it with discounts and finance offers. Expecting to do better later in the year, the company kept building them at a high rate. Improvement didn’t come so it was left with too much stock on its hands. Financially, that’s crippling.

It was also investing vast amounts in the Welsh factory to build the DBX. And despite about two years worth of incoming orders for the DBX, it isn’t due to get into production until spring, so the money from customers wouldn’t begin to come in until summer 2020.

Bluntly, there wasn’t enough cash in the coffers to keep the firm running until then. Well, not without a pile of junk bonds Aston was forced to issue last year. Stroll is putting in an additional loan so that those high-interest bonds won’t now be drawn on.