Aston Martin in jeopardy as parent company Investment Dar in financial turmoil, yikes

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Sep 29, 2009 | 11:17 AM

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From: Zoo York

Aston Martin in jeopardy as parent company Investment Dar in financial turmoil, yikes

"Is Aston Martin on the brink of insolvency? Britain's Guardian is reporting that the Kuwaiti fund that owns half of Aston is having trouble refinancing the debt it's incurred during the recent global economic crisis. It hasn't help that the fund failed to report its 2008 financial records on time and subsequently had trading halted on its shares. All isn't doom and gloom, however. Kuwait's Investment Dar says that it recently inked a deal that will at least buy it some time in working out a new plan to get out of its mess, but oil prices just aren't what they used to be, and money is hard to come by – even for wealth funds.

When Ford sold Aston Martin in March of 2007, times were better for the consortium that bought David Brown's legacy. Along with ex-racer Dave Richards, banker John Singers and Adeem Investment, Investment Dar bought the Bond-ride firm for $925m (£480m). Fast forward to late 2008 and Investment Dar was itself trying to borrow $1B (£630m) to refinance debt, and iteven defaulted on a $100m Islamic bond in April. So, the Dar finds itself in a position of having to keep its creditors at bay while it seeks to right the ship. The agreement they've reached now is known as a standstill agreement. That means creditors won't make any new individual claims for a while. The arrangement will continue until the end of the year and hopefully Aston Martin will survive the financial storm."
Source: Autoblog