Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll has formally taken up his role as executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, having completed his purchase of a 25% stake in the firm today.
In addition, it has been revealed that Stroll’s consortium has passed on some of its shares to two further investor consortiums, one of which is led by Mercedes-AMG F1 team principal Toto Wolff.
In January, Stroll’s investment fund had agreed to take a 16.7% stake in Aston Martin for £182 million, at a price of £4 per share. The deal, first reported by Autocar, also included a £318m cash infusion through a new rights issue for a total of £500m.
However, given Aston Martin’s dramatically reduced share price in the interim, Stroll and his fellow investors have radically reworked the agreement to take on a quarter of its shares.
Stroll said: “In the midst of the most challenging environment globally that any of us have ever experienced, all of my and the management team’s energies will now be dedicated to building on the inherent strengths of the company, its brand, engineering, and the skills of its people to forge the foundations of a bright future.”
Stroll also reiterated the company’s plans to build profits initially, principally by fulfilling pre-orders for the DBX SUV, which are said to number more than 2500, and by reducing supply to meet demand in order to add make its current sports car range more desirable.
“In this first year, we will reset the business,” said Stroll. “Our most pressing objective is to plan to restart our manufacturing operations, particularly to start production of the brand’s first SUV, DBX, and to bring the organisation back to full operating life.