Aston-Marcedes-B
Daimler Will Not Seek Controlling Stake of Aston Martin
Industry News
Another day and another excuse to feature an Aston Martin, this time the story centers on Daimler, when has it not over the past year or so. Daimler has confirmed that it will not seek to increase its current equity stake of 5% percent in Aston Martin or become involved in the day to day management of the company, despite having a seat on the board of directors. Aston Martin sells around 4,000 cars per year where as Daimler, through its Mercedes Benz brand, sells well over 1 million. This economies of differing and diverging scales is the main reason why the German juggernaut will not further its interest. Daimler believes that the current management setup is already a well oiled machine and that its expertise would make little difference, the company already supplies Aston Martin with electronic parts and AMG V8 engines in exchange for the 5% share holding. Daimler paid no cash for the deal to secure its share holding in Aston Martin, it is also believed that the two companies are planning to building an SUV using stock technology supplied by Mercedes with a market release date for 2017. Aston Martin’s current owners are formed from an alliance of private equity venture capitalists, the company recently replaced its CEO with Andy Palmer a former chief planing officer from Nissan. This is a period of change for Aston, the company is currently upgrading its 10 year old product strategy and plans to increase sales form 4,200 to 7,500 by 2018. In all probability, Daimler’s ultimate desire is to add a “halo” brand to its product portfolio, Aston Martin surely has to be on its shopping list. This partnership between the two companies is mutually exclusive Daimler may not be keen to run Aston Martin but it is certainly interested in buying the company even if the public denials say otherwise.  Aston-Marcedes-B
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