British luxury carmaker Aston Martin widened its first-half pre-tax loss to £216.7m from £142.2m in the same period last year. The company has stopped production of some old models this year ahead of the launch of new ones. The company expects to see improved performance in the second half of the year as new models start selling, it said in a press release today.
Specialized products of Aston Martin
Revenues fell 11 percent to 603 million pounds. Wholesale sales, the number of cars delivered to dealers or other intermediaries, fell 32 per cent to 1,998. The reason for this is the planned switch to the new Vantage and the upgraded DBX707 models, which only went into production at the end of the second quarter.
But Aston Martin has seen strong demand for the more expensive limited edition cars. In the first six months, the carmaker delivered 118 of its special models, led by the Valkyrie and Valour. That was 38 more than a year ago. The Valkyrie costs at least $3 million and the Valour $1 million. As a result, the average selling price increased by 29 per cent to £274,000.
Amidst a restructuralization
The carmaker remains confident that it will meet the financial targets for this year that it announced in February. This is because it has been able to complete the transformation of its product portfolio to ensure future growth.
Aston Martin is now in the midst of a restructuring led by Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll. The Canadian billionaire has been forced to repeatedly ask investors for additional funds and bring in new shareholders, including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, since the company’s 2020 rescue. The carmaker is looking to launch new models more frequently than in the past.
Source: Czech Press Office
