Aston Martin Lagonda, the iconic British carmaker known for outfitting James Bond, has announced the sale of its stake in the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team as part of efforts to shore up its struggling balance sheet.
The $146 million deal, revealed in a binding letter of intent this week, values the Formula 1 team at $3.2 billion. While the buyer has not yet been disclosed, the move sees Aston Martin offload its 4.6% stake in the team—meaning it never held majority control to begin with.
The transaction marks a significant shift in Aston Martin’s strategy, as the company faces deepening financial challenges. Shares have lost over 50% of their value in the past year, and second-quarter revenues dropped by 34%, driven by sluggish demand for high-performance models such as the Valkyrie and the delayed Valhalla hypercar.
Compounding the pressure is a newly implemented US–UK trade agreement, which reduces auto tariffs to 10%, but only for the first 100,000 vehicles annually. Once that quota is reached, tariffs snap back to a punishing 27.5%—a brutal prospect for low-volume luxury manufacturers like Aston Martin.
Although this represents an improvement on the previously flat 27.5% rate, it’s still well above historical norms, and introduces added volatility into Aston Martin’s most critical export market.
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