Lawrence Stroll is reportedly set to sell a minority stake in Aston Martin to Arctos Partners, an American firm in the coming months. The deal is still not confirmed and remains in its early stages which is why there has been no official announcement as of yet.
Bloomberg reported that Stroll could sell as much as 25% of the company’s shares to Actros Partners, a Private Equity Firm. The Canadian billionaire has been in talks to sell stakes for several months, but he increased the F1 team’s valuation recently.
Last year, the company valued itself at $1.3 billion but Stroll is hoping for an increase now, according to Bloomberg’s sources. This is mainly down to Stroll’s role in ensuring the revival of Aston Martin’s F1 team.
There has been a lot of interest in Aston Martin as of late, particularly because of the team’s jump in performance. Stroll took over team Silverstone in 2018, rebranded it to Aston Martin in 2021, and brought it out of its slump. Until 2022, they were languishing in the lower end of the midfield but the very next year, they finished on the podium eight times.
Overall, Aston Martin seems to be on the ascendency. Stroll made it clear that he wants to compete for the World Championship in the near future. For that, he is making changes around the team, including a bold attempt at signing one of F1’s most decorated engineers- Adrian Newey.
Lawrence Stroll’s attempt to sign Adrian Newey
Earlier this week, sources revealed that Adrian Newey has decided to leave Red Bull. Ferrari and Aston Martin came up as the teams most likely to sign the 65-year-old and while the former remains the favorite, Lawrence Stroll is unlikely to concede without a fight.
Stroll reportedly made an offer to Newey during the Saudi Arabian GP weekend. Team Principal Mike Krack denied this later but, a former colleague of Newey’s spilled the beans.
Peter Windsor worked with Newey during their Williams days and insisted that Stroll made a lucrative offer to the Red Bull Chief Technical Officer. The Aussie added that Newey declined this proposal since money was not his main motivation for leaving Red Bull.
Aston Martin remains in the race to sign Newey as reported. But Ferrari is the prime candidate to land him. Earlier this week, he was spotted in Bologna (Italy) making the links between the two parties even stronger.
