Kuwaiti firm considering sale of Aston Martin stake

The Kuwaiti-based investment firm that partnered with Prodrive’s David Richards and American banker John Sinders in March 2007 to purchase Aston Martin from Ford was previously reported to be offering its stake in the niche carmaker for an estimated $1 billion. Investment Dar Co. paid roughly $480 million for its 50% share of Aston Martin and the investment firm has now confirmed that it is seriously considering selling up to 20% of the British marque.

The firm is looking at raising close to $1 billion to refinance some of its debts and is willing to sell a portion of its Aston Martin stake on behalf of itself and some of its partners, according to its executive vice-president Amr Abou El-Seoud, who spoke with Reuters.

"We have offers ... we are in talks but the (sale) should be value-added whether financially or technically," he revealed. "It (could) be a maximum 10 to 20% of the company to be taken out of all investors, in other words, Dar's dilution might be in 5 to 10%."

Seoud also mentioned that there is a high chance that a deal will be reached soon, and that further down the track his company maybe even sell shares in Aston Martin to the public.

Like most carmakers, Aston Martin has been hit financially by the global economic crisis and revealed earlier this month that it will be shedding up to a third of its workforce, or about 600 employees. However, Seoud stressed that his firm is not walking away from the carmaker and that there are plans in place to continue developing new models and open new dealerships.