Luxury carmaker Aston Martin could delist from the London Stock Exchange and return to private ownership as a way to boost its balance sheet, according to an analyst.
Experts at Third Bridge have said the move could have a number of benefits for the Warwickshire-headquartered brand including “improve agility, attract long-term partners, and reduce the administrative and financial burdens of public listing”.
The comments come after Aston Martin’s executive chairman Lawrence Stroll suggested at the end of March that he might consider taking the luxury carmaker private in the future.
They also come ahead of Aston Martin publishing its second quarter and half-year results tomorrow morning (Wednesday, 30 July).
Aston Martin’s single biggest shareholder is Yew Tree Consortium, which is led by Stroll, which has a stake of 33 per cent.
That total is up from where it had been earlier this year following an £52.5m equity raise in March.
Other major shareholders include Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Li Shufu’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli and Mercedes‑Benz.
Stroll first acquired a stake in Aston Martin in 2021 with an investment of £182m.
Aston Martin listed on the London Stock Exchange in October 2018 with a £19 per share initial public offering which gave it an initial valuation of around £4.33bn.
However, its share price has been on the slide ever since and its shares are now trading at around 80p each, giving it a valuation of in the region of £826m.
Its current valuation is up from around £650m – an all-time low it fell to in April.
‘Going private is being considered as a potential path forward’ for Aston Martin
Orwa Mohamad, an analyst at Third Bridge, said: “Aston Martin faces a challenging second half of 2025, with market headwinds expected to weigh on volumes and profitability.
“China, once a key growth driver, is now in structural decline for foreign luxury automakers. Aston Martin, like its peers, is shifting focus to more resilient regions such as the US, Europe, and the Middle East to maintain volume stability.
“Tariff exposure and foreign exchange volatility are near-term pressures. Although the recent US-UK trade agreement helps cap tariffs at 10 per cent, a weak US dollar relative to the pound creates a pricing mismatch that is likely to be passed on to end consumers.
“Internally, Aston Martin is taking steps to mitigate costs, with a particular emphasis on bill of materials optimisation.
“However, cost-cutting measures take time to filter through, and gross margin recovery is not expected until 2027 or later.
“Despite these challenges, Aston Martin’s client base offers some insulation. Buyers in the ultra-luxury segment tend to be less sensitive to inflation and economic cycles, giving the company more pricing flexibility.
“Debt burden continues to limit product development and investment in new technology, raising concerns about long-term competitiveness. The partnership with Lucid offers a potential solution on the EV technology front.
“Going private is being considered as a potential path forward. Our experts say simplifying the ownership structure could improve agility, attract long-term partners, and reduce the administrative and financial burdens of public listing.”
Luxury carmaker cuts first quarter losses
In its first quarter results, published in April, Aston Martin cut its pre-tax loss from £138.8m to £79.6m while its revenue fell by 13 per cent to £223.9m.
Its net debt also rose over the same three months from £1bn to £1.2bn.
In March, City AM reported that Aston Martin was planning to pay its top bosses more than its fellow FTSE 250 companies after having struggled to attract talent in recent years.
The luxury carmaker proposed to increase the bonus opportunities for its chief executive and chief financial officer from 200 per cent to 250 per cent of their salaries.
At the time, Aston Martin said that “while this would position annual bonus ahead of UK FTSE 250 practice, it would take our annual bonus policy to median within our identified global luxury peer group and lower quartile against our automotive peers”.
The company admitted to having struggled to recruit talent “due to the lack of competitiveness of our reward packages” under its most recent remuneration policy.
It added that the increased bonus opportunity would “continue to be linked to stretching targets, ensuring maximum payouts are only received for exceptional performance across a range of KPIs [key performance indicators].
The business has pointed out that while the bonus opportunities are being increased, the timeframe in which they are received by the top bosses will remain the same.
Chief executive Adrian Hallmark joined Aston Martin in September last year from his position as chairman and CEO of Bentley.