Aston Martin’s losses will more than double to £495m in 2022

Aston Martin’s annual losses more than doubled last year due to shipping costs for the Valkyrie hypercar, currency movements and expensive debt.

The luxury carmaker posted a pre-tax loss of £495m in 2022, compared with £213.8m in 2021, although the company expects to start generating cash as early as this year. Revenues rose 26 per cent to £1.4 billion, while car sales rose 4 per cent to 6,412.

The business was owned by Lawrence Stroll on a script but has been forced to recapitalize several times, including a heavily discounted £576m IPO in September that made Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund a shareholder. The Chinese Geely also participated in the deal last year, which tried to buy the company several times.

The Valkyrie, a £2.5m car intended to be the fastest road car ever built, caused Aston Martin a number of problems and was one of the drivers of the losses.

The company collected deposits from customers years ago and charges depreciation and amortization on every model it ships.

In addition, Aston said it supplied cars to customers whose payments it claimed were stolen by two Swiss car dealers. In 2021, Aston sued them, claiming they had withheld more than £10 million, but said they would continue to deliver the cars as promised.

The two dealers sued Aston for £150m, claiming they were owed the money to secure the development of the vehicle and two other sports cars.

Aston delivered 80 Valkyries during the year, including 36 in the last quarter.

Aston’s finances were also hit by its high-interest debt – the cost of which was £139m during the year. Overall, it took in £127m from car sales, but had a cash outflow of £299m, with £287m going into the development of the new sports car range.

It also made a £156m non-cash adjustment to the value of its dollar-denominated debt.

The company said it expects a “significant increase in profitability” this year following the launch of the new models.