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Aston Martin posts deep quarterly loss as coronavirus pandemic dents sales

LONDON — Aston Martin posted a deep first-quarter loss after sales dropped by nearly a third due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis, though the luxury car maker said production of a crucial sport utility vehicle was on track. Aston Martin, popular for being James Bond's carmaker of choice, suffered a torrid time since it floated in October 2018, seeing its share price tumble from 19 pounds to around 40 pence. Dire conditions forced the company to bring in Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll to invest in the firm, while Aston said it will continue to review future funding and refinancing options to boost liquidity. The pandemic hit demand and forced factories around the world to suspend production. However, Aston resumed operations as its Welsh plant last week but not at its other site located in southern England as yet. "We were obviously fairly significantly hit by COVID-19, starting with China in January but more clearly in what we saw as it came across towards Europe and the United States," Chief Executive Andy Palmer told Reuters. The company posted a pre-tax loss of 119 million pounds ($145 million), compared with a loss of 17 million pounds ($21 million) last year, and said it could no longer provide an annual outlook. Its full-year loss in 2019 came in at 104 million pounds. Shares were down 5% at 36 pence, as of 07:35 GMT on Wednesday. The carmaker said production of its DBX SUV, which is key to boost volumes and appeal to new buyers including more women, was on track and had a strong order book. The luxury brand, which has seen core retail sales slump by an annual 31%, has furloughed staff, introduced additional safety measures and cut the pay of its senior management as part of measures to handle the crisis caused by the pandemic. Stroll, who hopes to pursue a turnaround partly by sharing Formula One technology with the firm's range of road cars, leads a consortium that took a 25% stake in the company earlier this year as part of a capital raise worth 536 million pounds. "Given the ongoing uncertainties, as is prudent, the company continues to review all future funding and refinancing options to increase liquidity," the company said on Wednesday.   (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by James Davey and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

5 things to know about the Aston Martin Lagonda SUV

Though Aston Martin unveiled its Lagonda Sedan first, we were told that the British ultra-luxury electric/autonomous spinoff brand's first production car would be an SUV. Today, at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, they took the wraps off an All-Terrain Concept: a battery-powered, autonomous-ready, all-wheel-drive crossover intended to presage that vehicle. We walked around, and sat in, the vehicle with Aston Martin Lagonda chief creative officer and design studio head, Marek Reichman, who provided us with all sorts of interesting insights about this new vehicle, and brand, which is expected to bow in 2021. Here are five things we learned. It Has a Hood for a Reason "The sedan was the most extreme version of this new design language, derived from the proportion of not having to have an engine, exhaust, driveline, or gas tank. This new concept has more of a hood, but by no means a typical SUV profile -- the windshield starts above the front axle line. This is because in an all-terrain vehicle, in all-terrain mode when you're going through snow or rough road, you want to feel protected. You want to see something in front of you." It's Huge Inside "Because of the powertrain, it has more space inside than a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which is fully a meter [more than 3 feet] longer. Luxury now is about time and space. I can't give you time, but I can give you space." It Has Radical Materials Inside "Just like we are unconstrained by tradition on the exterior, we are similarly unconstrained in the interior. We've used materials that define modern, contemporary luxury. Not like the traditional values of an English country manor. So on the seats we have cashmere. On the key we have Swarovski crystals. On the headliner we have alpaca. And on the door cards, we have silks. This car will be built in Wales and many of these materials come from Wales." It's Luxurious and Utilitarian "Design is about solving a problem. In this case, it's about solving for a customer who needs more practical applications. So we've made the interior flexible. The front seats rotate for a future autonomous mode. But you can get fixed seats up front and move the rear sheets forward to allow room for a third row. Or you can move both rear rows forward and have more room for cargo. It's a redefinition of uses rather than trying to fit something into the box of what an SUV can be." It's Trendy and Anti-Trend "A designer's job is to see if a trend is going to burn out quickly or be long term.

Aston Martin skids in stock market debut

LONDON — Shares in luxury automaker Aston Martin fell as much as 6.5 percent on their market debut in London on Wednesday as investors and analysts raised concerns over Aston's ability to deliver an ambitious rollout of new models. The company, which last year made its first profit since 2010 and has gone bankrupt seven times, had priced its shares at 19 pounds each, giving it a market capitalization of 4.33 billion pounds ($5.63 billion). The shares fell to as low as 17.75 pounds. Aston Martin has plans to launch a new model every year from 2016 to 2022. "(It) has very aggressive growth plans. The execution of that growth needs to be flawless — nothing eats cash more than a car company when the cycle turns. There is concern that it's more cyclical than the commentary has been," said James Congdon, managing director of cashflow returns specialist Quest. "The banks have done a good job for their client — but there's no bounce." Aston is going all-in Aston Martin — full name Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc — expects to produce around 7,100 to 7,300 cars in 2019, and 9,600 to 9,800 cars in 2020. It aims to increase production to 14,000 cars in the medium term, helped by new models and improving its manufacturing process. The company is investing all of its cashflow to try to achieve this, leaving nothing for dividends or paying down debt. "In terms of execution risk — this is what I've done for all of my career. I'm an engineer: we mitigate risk," Chief Executive Andy Palmer, who has led a turnaround plan at the company since 2014, told Reuters. Palmer played down risks to the business from Britain leaving the European Union, even as other car manufacturers step up warnings over a disorderly Brexit. He said Aston Martin was "relatively well insulated" from the effects of Brexit because Europe is not its biggest market and it may actually benefit from exporting with a cheaper pound. However, 60 percent of its parts are imported from the EU and will be hit by tariffs if there is no trade deal. "Obviously we'd all prefer no tariffs to be frank, no doubt, but the industry has to learn to adapt, and it always has adapted to changes," Palmer said. Valuation In 2017, Aston Martin had adjusted earnings before tax interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 206.5 million pounds, up from 100.9 million pounds in 2016.