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Originally Posted by deggis
Indeed the press release by Aston was almost comical. I didn't believe for a second that this was a "pause".
The road car project which is not being cancelled has had many delays too. Deliveries were supposed to start in Q4 last year. Based on public outings looks like no more than 3 test mules? even exist. Of course AM wouldn't ever officially cite this as a reason. The convergence turned out be an convenient excuse.
ps. I just realized Andy Palmer has now overseen two of the most pathetic LMP programs in recent years (he was the VP of marketing or something and very visible figure in the early stages of the Nissan program). |
I'm glad someone else noticed this. His failure at Nissan, his proximity to Carlos Ghosn, and the inexplicable push to create a vanity project at Aston when they clearly needed to improve operational efficiency shows his focus was completely incorrect, imo. Yesterday, I read an old article where he was quoted saying that he always wanted to be the CEO of a car company. Well, he was and he nearly caused it's collapse.
There are people smarter than me here, but below is something I posted elsewhere related to their financials and how much trouble the firm was in in 2018.
Accounts Receivables jumped by 165% in 2018 v 2017 accounting for 35% of current assets in 1 year...at the same time Cash ratio declined from .32 to .18 while Current Ratio declined from .79 to .68. Aston stacked as many sales as possible into receivables (perhaps to sell them off for cash during 2019?) and when looking at days sales outstanding a rough estimate from the 2018 annual release indicates they had 157.25 days sales outstanding...Remember, these are sales WHICH THEY NEEDED TO COLLECT ON at a later date and all this from a firm that was admittedly CASH POOR.
And in 2019 he was nearly ebullient when discussing the additional short term debt they took on all in an attempt to delay the inevitable cash liquidity that was on the horizon...AND the access to the debt was contingent upon orders for the SUV...else, the debt turned into 15% coupon debt. Downgraded to CCC after the debt issuance from a single-B company (HY but much further away from default) illustrates how short-sighted (or worse) his attempt was.
There was no cushion for any contingency. Simply, in hindsight, it appears a bet not unlike putting all your chips on the table for one last roll of the dice.
Stroll, it appears, knows how to run a company and hopefully he will nix all the frivolity and Aston will be able to be more operationally more efficient while also remaining in motorsports at some level other than just F1. Andy Palmer and his "Second Century Plan" was a huge bust.