Aston Martin - comment
Operationally, the results were slightly below expectations. The bonds will be softer, but any drop will be reduced by the affirmation of 2026 guidance and the additional £50m liquidity facility provided by the Yew Tree Consortium. The £50m facility is interest-bearing (if drawn) and secured by certain company assets (no further details were given); it increases liquidity to £230m. Whilst AML hasn’t suffered any issues from the Gulf conflict yet, supply chain disruption remains a risk.
Unit sales were in line with expectations, but Average Selling Price fell 7% to £179k. There are around 400 aged cars in dealer stock (which we suspect is dominated by DBX models in China). AML is making payments to dealers to help reduce prices and sell the vehicles. Working Capital outflows were £63m, largely due to the ramp up of DB12 S deliveries; management does not expect this to unwind significantly in the year. The US quota for vehicle imports from the UK is 25k per quarter (at 10% tariff); if the quota is filled, AML would delay deliveries, which could have a temporary impact on working capital (inventory).