Aston Martin - comment

The pricing for the Aston Martin rights issue published this morning will deliver more dilution than we had thought. Bondholders can be happy that the key shareholders (Yew Tree, Mercedes Benz and Saudi Arabia) are all taking up their rights as previously promised. Proceeds of the rights issue will be received by the end of the month and we expect a partial redemption of the SSNs to be enacted soon after.

The rights issue represents a 4:1 dilution of existing shares and is priced at 103p, a discount of 78% to Friday's close. The General Meeting to approve the issue is on 8th September and the cash will come by the end of the month. Excluding the commitments already secured, the underwriting is for 55% of the equity being raised, and in an uncertain equity market it has not come cheap.