Aston Martin will need to raise more cash or find an automaker to partner with before it can become viable business again, a leading financial analyst said.
The unprofitable automaker raised 654 million pounds ($776 million) in September via a rights issue that brought in Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as a major investor. The funding drive, the automaker’s second since listing in 2018, was partly to pay off existing debt.
Despite this, the UK automaker’s net debt increased to 833 million pounds as of the end of September from 809 million the year before, company figures show.
“Aston Martin Lagonda still screens as a candidate for future recapitalization by the time the business achieves a viable operating structure, possibly 2024,” Philippe Houchois, chief automotive equity analyst at Jefferies, said in an investor note.
Houchois believes that Aston Martin is “falling behind peers” on industrial scale as it battles to reverse a run of unprofitable quarters and approach the margins achieved by rivals such as Bentley and Ferrari.
“Investors must either be prepared to recapitalize the business again once operations reach viable metrics or believe that an OEM will step in and provide the scale AML is missing,” Houchois wrote.
The analyst said that China’s Geely Auto, which has built up a 7.6 percent in Aston Martin on the open market, would not be able to provide technology Aston Martin needs. “We do not see how Geely fits that profile,” he wrote.
Amer Malas 
Hani Joudi 
