[Boxer]

And a couple other points:

I do wonder about Stroll’s strenuous assertions of being fully “sold out”. I’m not willing to burn many brain cells trying to decipher this because I don’t have a horse in this race. But “ sold out” and “ made to order” appear to be sold into the wholesale channel, not necessarily retail. So with retail sales running ahead of wholesale this could be 51% retail and 49% wholesale which could still leave a lot of product on dealer lots. Stroll’s glib talk seems more about creating an illusion of high end customer demand more than dealers needing something on their showroom floor.

Finally, as mentioned, the AMR versus AML connection is opaque. If I were an AML shareholder or creditor, I’d be pretty focused on watching what is going on with that connection. Certainly seems like there is some room for abuse.

The AML - AMR relationship is definitely one to watch. Listening to Stroll you would think its all one company and its anything but.

 

[Boxer]

I haven’t dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s but on the back of an envelope it looks like Stroll led and investment of around $250US in AML ( unknown how much was his personal stake vs others in consortium) to get a $20 million/ per year( 10 year annuity) into his own company, AMR. ( $200MM back) Then he used the Aston name to pull in other deep pocketed sponsors into AMR like Aramco.

Best case sounds like he found a way to defray the cost of his hobby…and got control of a car company for ( almost) free.

Just my cynicall first take.

I think you have it pretty nailed. For Stroll the challenge is to bring enough extra funding into AMR to offset any losses he ends up with at AML.

On the same subject, this is quite insightful: CHRIS HARRIS' COLUMN - WEEK 1 · Collecting Cars