Aston Martin shares skid on first day of trading

Shares in Aston Martin hit the skids on their first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange.

The luxury carmaker, which priced its stock market flotation in £19 a share valuing the company at £4.33 billion, saw shares tumble by nearly 5% in morning trade to 1,815p.

“The fanfare that was expected for the shares never materialised.

“As much as the brand Aston Martin is prestige, which is abundantly clear though the quality of its vehicles DB and Vanquish, and championed in various James Bond productions, investors are clearly a harder crowd to please.”

The listing has seen investors Investindustrial, Adeem Investments, Primewagon and senior management bank more than £1 billion between them with the firm floating 25% on the London Stock Exchange.

Aston Martin cut the top end of its initial public offering price range earlier this week, meaning the company looks set to be kept out of the FTSE 100.

The firm narrowed the range of its IPO from between £17.50 and £22.50 per share to between £18.50 and £20 per share.

The float price gave Aston Martin a £4.33 billion valuation, down from its previously expected valuation of up to £5.1 billion.

If the values of the current FTSE 100 constituents remain broadly the same until the next reshuffle in December, the company will miss out on a place in the blue chip index.

“We are delighted by the positive response we have received from investors across the world and are very pleased to welcome our new shareholders to the register.

Germany’s Daimler AG will remain a stakeholder and will not sell down its holding as part of the IPO. The company will instead convert its current non-voting stake of 4.9% to shares.

In the first half of the year, Aston Martin reported a pre-tax profit of £20.8 million on revenue of £449.9 million. Operating profits rose 14% to £106 million.

Jasper Lawler, of London Capital Group, said: “The first public listing of a British carmaker in decades has the kind of ‘dinner party’ appeal that few IPOs share. Aston Martin is one of the most hotly anticipated IPOs this year.

“The British carmaker is in rude financial health.”