AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/12 Report--

Geely is in talks to invest in century-old British sports car brand Aston Martin and has held talks with investors and management of the company, while Geely has conducted due diligence on Aston Martin's funding, the Financial Times reported.

In response to the news, an Aston Martin spokesman declined to comment on whether to negotiate with Geely, saying only that communication with potential investors was ongoing. Geely's European spokesman declined to comment. Geely's official response to the media said "no comment."

However, on the morning of January 12, Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Automobile Group, forwarded Aston Martin news on Weibo. At this sensitive moment in the news, or Geely's hint of progress in Aston Martin, some netizens commented,"It seems there's a play!"

Sources quoted by foreign media revealed that the deal amounted to about £ 200 million, and the two sides had launched a month-long preliminary contact for this purpose, and Geely had conducted due diligence on the funding of the acquisition target. It is unclear whether Geely will enter into a technical partnership with Aston Martin or simply be a financial investor.

The source also said Geely believes the integration of Aston Martin with its own British brand Lotus could save money on technology and car platforms.

Geely also owns stakes in Volvo Cars and Germany's Daimler. Daimler owns a 5% stake in Aston Martin and supplies the latter with Mercedes-Benz AMG engines.

Since listing on the London Stock Exchange in October 2018, Aston Martin has been plagued by a series of profit warnings, the market value has fallen by more than 70%, and the capital situation is tight. Now the company is busy raising funds to improve its financial position. Aston Martin has confirmed that it is in early talks with a number of investors and is evaluating these potential funding rounds. The company also said it would make further formal statements in due course.

On January 7, Aston Martin issued a profit warning that its 2019 profit will almost halve due to weak European markets, sluggish demand for Vantage models and strong performance from competitors Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Aston Martin expects a full-year operating margin of just 8%, well below its previous forecast of 13%.

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer revealed that the company delivered 5819 new cars worldwide in 2019, down 7% from 2018. He said Aston Martin had had a "very disappointing year".

In November 2019, Aston Martin officially released its first SUV model-DBX, which sells for 2.378 million yuan in China. It is equipped with a 4.0L V8 twin-turbo engine matched with a 9-speed automatic gearbox with a maximum output of 550PS, peak torque of 700Nm, 0- 100Km/h time of 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 291km/h. The car mainly competes with Bentley Tianyue and Lamborghini Urus.

Aston Martin is pinning its hopes on DBX, which is scheduled to be delivered in mid-2020 and expects to nearly double brand sales after the launch of the new car, with annual sales forecast to reach 4,000 - 5,000 units. DBX has received about 1800 orders since its launch in November, the company said. Andy Palmer said,"DBX order rates are higher than anything we've launched before. "

Aston Martin is a British sports car manufacturer founded in March 1913 and has a history of 107 years. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company in 1994 and changed hands again in 2007. At present, Aston Martin's largest shareholder is European Strategic Investment Group, which owns more than 30% of Aston Martin.

Geely is China's leading self-owned car company by sales volume. If the transaction is finally completed, it will be another world-famous transaction after acquiring parts of Volvo Cars, Lotus and Daimler, while further expanding Geely's global territory.

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