Stroll steps up to the plate to block Chinese Geely aggressive moves in a bid to takeover the Aston Martin manufacturer and Formula 1 team. While the Chinese Geely wanted to buy Aston Martin, Lawrence Stroll increased his stake in the brand to block them.
In January 2020, the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll bought Aston Martin by becoming the main shareholder via his consortium Yew Tree Overseas Limited. He took the opportunity to place his son Lance as the titular driver of the new Aston Martin Racing team in Formula 1 and now holds 28.29% of the brand’s shares, again via his consortium. The businessman has just increased his stake (previously 19%) by injecting more than 50 million pounds sterling (56.62 million euros).
According to Autocar, Lawrence Stroll has stepped up his stake to remain the majority shareholder of Aston Martin and to repel Geely’s attempt to buy it outright.
The Chinese manufacturer has owned 7.6% of the Goodwood-based brand since September 2022. And according to Bloomberg analysts, the Chinese giant was preparing a full takeover of Aston Martin. Lawrence Stroll recently turned down a £1.3 billion (€1.47 billion) offer from Geely to become the sole owner of Aston Martin.
Geely already owns the Volvo and Polestar brands as well as a 10% stake in the Daimler-Benz group. The Chinese giant also owns Lotus and is preparing to become co-owner of the new ‘Renault Horse division’.
As part of reported plans to separate itself into EV and internal combustion engine divisions, Renault i selling its engine-making division to Geely and an unnamed oil company. According to Reuters the Renault Group is planning to announce the split some time in the northern autumn.
The so-called “Horse” division will be based outside of France, and house the automaker’s petrol, hybrid and transmission production facilities across Europe (Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Romania) and Latin America.
Reuters’ two sources say Renault will retain a 40 per cent of this unit, while Geely will buy 40 per cent and the unnamed oil firm the remaining 20 per cent. All up this division is expected to directly employ around 10,000 people.
Geely is definitely looking aggressive on all fronts and with a serious intention to buy a real jewel with Aston Martin. But for the moment, Aston Martin is resisting.
