Lawrence Stroll has recently hinted at letting go of Aston Martin, despite his team making tremendous progress in the sport over the last few months. This comes right after the Canadian billionaire sold shares worth $174,000,000 to Geely, a Chinese automaker, making them the third biggest shareholders in the company.
With the recent purchase, Geely is right behind the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and Stroll’s consortium when it comes to the amount of control they hold. Geely now has 17 percent stakes in Aston Martin. Notably, they had 7.6 percent shares from their September 2022 purchase, so this increase is hugely significant.
The increase in Geely International’s percentage means that Stroll and his consortium’s shares have reduced. They sold 6 percent of shares to raise $118,000,000. This was enough for Business F1 to claim that the Canadian businessman is planning an exit, away from Aston Martin.
Details into Lawrence Stroll’s quiet departure
Back in 2020, Lawrence Stroll purchased 25% of Aston Martin Lagonda to get the British company out of trouble. Now he feels that he has done enough to be knighted by the British Empire. This happened after the Canadian billionaire along with his consortium purchased shares worth $235 million. It also compelled him to change Racing Point’s name in F1 to Aston Martin which brought back the iconic name back to the sport.
This was added with a further infusion of $410 million through a new rights issue. It took the total investment to around $646 million as reported by Autocar UK. However, the 64-year-old is now struggling to keep things together at the Silverstone-based outfit. He is burning over a $1,000,000 every single day according Business F1.
Today Lawrence Stroll sold 34.9 million shares for GBP117.0 million at GBP3.35 per share from Aston Martin Lagonda to Geely pic.twitter.com/HrFN3cKLGL
— Aston Martin F1 updates (@startonpole) May 30, 2023
Enduring such huge losses isn’t sustainable in the long run for Stroll, so the Canadian businessman started looking for buyers from elsewhere. However, the deal raised suspicion as the report said the British giants wouldn’t need to raise any new cash. In reality, things were very different.
With 17% already on their hands, Geely is also set to buy an additional 5% shares in 2024. This will make them the biggest shareholders in the company which could prove to be instrumental in the decision-making in the F1 division as well.
Stroll’s stealth business
Aston Martin was in the news earlier this year after their unification with Japanese giants Honda. The entire motorsport world is anticipating something strong, because of Honda’s recent success with Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
This was added to their recent launch, the DB12, which kept the media’s attention away from their internal struggles. Amid this, Lawrence Stroll made a secret deal and sold off a portion of his Aston Martin shares, hence hiding it from the public eye.
Honda welcomed Mr. Lawrence Stroll, Executive Chairman of @AstonMartinF1 and Mr. Martin Whitmarsh, Group CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies at Honda global head office in Aoyama, Tokyo to announce our participation in F1 starting in the 2026 season. pic.twitter.com/dcNqmnLGPF
— Honda Racing Global (@HondaRacingGLB) May 24, 2023
Nevertheless, the deal is believed to be controversial as Lawrence Stroll used stealth and secrecy to go ahead. It is certainly a hint that he might be on his way out of Aston Martin Lagonda in the days to come.
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