Canadian billionaire and Aston Martin main owner Lawrence Stroll (64) has sold a minority stake in the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. The US private equity firm Arctos Partners, which already has a stake in Liverpool FC, has joined the British team. According to insiders, she paid around one billion pounds (around 1.14 billion euros) for the share, like the agency Bloomberg
reported.
Main owner Stroll has long been trying to turn the car manufacturer into a British Ferrari. But so far he has failed to renovate Aston Martin and transform it into a luxury brand. Because investors and managers primarily pursue their own goals.
His company announced the deal with Arctos on Thursday evening, shortly before the start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix USA this weekend. The Americans’ entry into Aston Martin’s team illustrates the growing attractiveness of Formula 1 in the USA, the company said in a statement.
“My commercial team came to me and said that we really feel that there are some great synergies, that there are some great commercial opportunities working with these 30 teams, particularly with the focus on the US and the growth in the U.S.,” Stroll said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, referring to Arcto’s sports investments. Arctos also has stakes in the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group.
In 2020, Stroll and his Yew Tree consortium bought the British sports car manufacturer, which had already gone through several bankruptcies, for 237 million euros. The group included, among others Mercedes‘ Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff (51) and the Swiss biotech billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli (58). Stroll made his fortune trading fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren, and later invested in other top brands such as Tommy Hilfiger.