2:53 pm, May 31, 2023
Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll has sold £117m of his stake in Aston Martin weeks after the Geely doubled its investment.
Stroll and his consortium, Yew Tree, remain the largest shareholder but this sale has reduced its stake from 28 per cent to 21.
Geely acquired 42m shares from Yew Tree and Aston Martin non-executive director Michael de Picciotto also offloaded around £7.8m worth of stock as part of the deal.
Aston Martin will raise £95m as part of the deal as 28m new shares are created.
Geely invested £234m earlier this month in Aston Martin taking its share to 17.2 per cent.
The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund is still the second largest shareholder but Geely is now third.
This latest investment from Geely has started rumours that it could be preparing for another takeover bid.
In 2020, Geely lost its last takeover bid when Stroll became majority shareholder and executive chairman of the business.
Geely chief executive Daniel Li has said that a deal could help the British car maker boost sales in China.
The Chinese car maker already owns British sports car brand Lotus, Volvo Cars, Polestar, LEVC and has a stake in Smart.
Geely’s increased interest in Aston Martin follows its increased revenue reported for the first three months of this year, which have gone someway to offset its losses for the year.
Its increase in shares means that Geely can now appoint a non-executive director to the board but it is unable to increase its share above 22 per cent before August 2024.
