The verdict of who will bail out Aston Martin is declared but sadly it’s not the much anticipated Mahindra Group. The deal has been signed with Italian private equity firm Investindustrial, which also happens to be the former owner of the Italian motorcycle brand Ducati. Investindustrial picked up 37.5 percent stake in Aston Martin for a price of £ 150 million. The deal also commits Investindustrial to shell out £100 million for product development programme every year for the next five years. This programme should prove beneficial for the Bond carmaker in order to provide the infrastructure their supercars demand.
Currently the parent company, Investment Dar, still remains to be the majority stake holder with about 64 percent stake in the company. While Indian auto major Mahindra & Mahindra poured in the maximum cash flow for the deal, it didn’t merely want to be a stake holder with no major control and thats the reason cited for Mahindra’s withdrawal from the bid. Also, the big bosses were probably lured by the fact that Investindustrial has tie-ups with Mercedes’ performance division AMG, but now it has been made clear in the deal that Investindustrial will not source technology from AMG.
Post the deal making, Aston Martin will soon announce its ambitious product plans for the year 2013. The cash strapped automaker hopes to revive itself with the coming of Investindustrial. This company had bought Ducati in 2006 when it was in a similar cash crunched situation and turned it into a profit churning one before selling it to Audi earlier this year for a staggering $ 1.1 billion. Their major expansion policy is to now expand the model range and to strengthen it dealership across the globe.