Okay, here's the straight scoop: French luxury goods house LVMH is NOT buying Aston Martin. Reports that Aston had been snapped up by the company that markets everything from Dom Perignon champagne to Louis Vuitton handbags to Dior perfumes, are wrong, say our well-placed sources in the UK.
But it does look as if an Aston sale is pending. The buyer will be a private investment firm with no names familiar to anybody outside the high-finance banking community. Rumored price is just a tad less than $1 billion.
LVMH did take a look at Aston late last year, but passed. One problem with a non-automotive buyer is that there’s a lot of cost and potential liability associated with purchasing a small automaker based in England. The Aston deal will include the factory, good news for the buyer, but that also includes the workers, which may not be.
As mentioned in the LVMH rumor, Ford should retain some interest in the sport-luxury brand, if for no other reason than to provide parts and components that could be shared with Jaguar and Land Rover.
The bottom line is the rumors of Ford selling Aston look solid. It’s the buyer that Autobild (picked up by Marketwatch and our friends in auto blogosphere) has wrong. Stay tuned for the latest on the Aston Martin sale drama from Motor Trend as the story develops.
