Aston Martin (AML) chief financial officer Mark Wilson will depart the luxury car manufacturer, as it revealed a rights issue and full-year pre-tax losses of over £100m. Aston also warned of the threat posed by coronavirus to both supply and demand in China, which was the company’s fastest growing market last year with 9 per cent of total wholesales.
Mr Wilson leaves Aston after five years at the company, and a search for his successor is under way. The carmaker attributed the 9 per cent drop in revenue to wholesale volume declines, along with the impact of various retail and customer financing arrangements, which have been used to drive its growth. Aston expects 2020 wholesale volumes to fall further as it seeks to reduce excessive dealer inventories to “a luxury norm”. This, along with initial deliveries of its DBX SUV and special models, will shift adjusted cash profits almost entirely into its second half.
Having announced a £500m rescue proposal from F1 team boss Lawrence Stroll in January, Aston disclosed a £317m rights issue as part of this package today. It will place 153m new shares at a price of 207p a share, offering 14 new shares for every 25 existing shares, and has already received irrevocable undertakings from 64.5 per cent of shareholders in support of the issue.
Bloomberg consensus estimates forecast are for an adjusted 14.8p loss per share for 2020, before rising to EPS of 14.3p in 2021.
| ASTON MARTIN (AML) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 345p | MARKET VALUE: | £787m | |
| TOUCH: | 345-348p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,374p | LOW: 332p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 151p* | NET DEBT: | 275%** | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 0.9 | 85 | 38.3 | nil |
| 2018 | 1.1 | -68 | -31.0 | nil |
| 2019 | 1.0 | -104 | -49.6 | nil |
| % change | -9 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £1.18bn, or 519p a share **Includes lease liabilities of £111m | ||||
