Chris Bryant, Columnist

Aston Martin Has a License to Burn Money

A new refinancing puts James Bond’s favorite carmaker on a surer footing, but shareholders are getting diluted — again.

October 29, 2020 at 7:00 AM UTC

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for the Financial Times.

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When Aston Martin joined the London Stock Exchange in 2018 each of its 228 million outstanding shares were worth a princely 19 pounds ($24.60).

This week the British luxury carmaker announced yet another effort to recapitalize and address its heavy debts. When the various measures are complete — including Mercedes-Benz taking a 20% stake in return for providing technology — there could be as many as 2.7 billion Aston Martin shares outstanding. The share price is now just 55 pence.