David Richards, a former British racing champion together with American banker John Sinders and two Kuwaiti investment firms, Investment Dar and the Adeem Investment Company will become the new owner. Mr. Richards, whose racing and automotive technology company, Prodrive, helped develop Aston Martin’s racing program, became interested in buying the brand as soon as Ford put it up for sale.
Mr. Richards will become Aston Martin’s chairman, while its current chief executive, Ulrich Bez, will continue to lead the company for at least five more years.
Officials at Ford, which is based in Dearborn, Mich., and is the second-largest American automaker behind General Motors Corporation (NYSE : GM, stock), insisted on Monday that they did not intend to sell other brands such as Jaguar or Land Rover, despite suggestions by many analysts to do so.
Ford closed out the worst year in its history two months ago, losing $12.7 billion amid slow sales of its biggest moneymakers, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. Ford stock price never traded above $10 a share in 2006. Ford should sign-up for a course to learn a thing or two from Toyota Motor Corporation (TYO:
7203) on how to produce quality cars without jeopardizing profit if it seriously want to turnaround the company which started by the father of automobile, Henry Ford.
March 13th, 2007 by financetwitter
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