Aston Martin boosts IPO prospects amid brexit

UK carmaker better placed for potential share sale

Riding on DB11, its new sports car, Aston Martin Holdings Ltd may offer an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. The company registered profit for the third quarter in a row even amid brexit concerns. It intends to reverse the pattern of loses over a period of six years. But there may be long-term trade issues for the company such as the tariffs it might face in EU countries.

The UK carmaker’s chief financial officer Mark Wilson said in an interview that a stock sale is “a natural point of speculation” given Aston Martin’s ownership structure. He said that any decision would have to be made by the closely held company’s shareholders and not the management board. The company is owned by Italian private equity company Investindustrial SpA and a Kuwaiti investment consortium, as well as a small stake by Daimler AG.

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Aston Martin posted pre-tax earnings for the second quarter after delivering more autos and charging customers more for them, and

“there’s a possibility, an increasing possibility, that we might be able to report a profit on a full-year basis this year already,”

Wilson said.

Generating positive cash flow might take slightly longer than returning to profit, even though Aston Martin made substantial progress in the first half of the year, the CFO said.

The company’s Chief executive officer Andy Palmer plans to raise the brand’s appeal with the family-friendly DBX crossover, an electric version of the Rapide coupe and special editions of the Vanquish sports car line.

Aston Martin said in a statement that the second-quarter pre-tax profit totalled £15.2 million ($19.6 million) compared with a £52.6 million loss a year earlier, as revenue almost doubled to €222 million. Full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will amount to £175 million, it said, compared with an earlier £170 million forecast. First-half profit on that basis surged almost fivefold, as deliveries jumped 67% and its cars’ average selling price rose 25% to £149,000.

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