Ford to sell Aston Martin unit to group led by racing champ

Ford Motor Co, seeking to raise cash after last year's record loss, will sell its profitable Aston Martin luxury sports-car unit to investors led by UK auto-racing champion David Richards.

Richards, founder of Prodrive, a UK-based maker of race-car parts, will be joined in the investment by US banker John Sinders as well as Adeem Investment KSC and Investment Dar Co, two Kuwait-based Islamic financial companies, Aston Martin said in a release obtained by the agency.

The sale ends a six-month search for a buyer and two decades of Ford control of UK-based Aston Martin, best known as James Bond's preferred car. Ford bought its initial stake while on its way to posting a then-record 1987 profit. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker lost $12.7 billion last year, the most in its 103-year history.

"Vehicle manufacturers are looking to focus their energies on their real strengths,'' said Michael Robinet, an analyst for CSM Worldwide Inc in Farmington Hills, Michigan. "Ford is a mass-market vehicle manufacturer.''

Aston Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Bez will keep his post, the statement said. Richards will be non-executive chairman.

Aston Martin, with price tags starting at $110,000 for the Vantage coupe, accounts for less than 1 per cent of Ford's global sales volume.

Ford acquisition: Ford, the world's third-largest automaker, bought a 75 per cent stake in the Gaydon carmaker 20 years ago and the rest in 1994. The unit's cars started appearing in James Bond movies with 1964's "Goldfinger'' and most recently in last year's "Casino Royale.''

Ford put Aston Martin up for sale on August 31, just before the company hired former Boeing Co executive Alan Mulally as its new chief executive. Founded as Bamford and Martin Ltd in 1913, the company took the name Aston Martin a year later, after its cars had success in a competition known as the Aston Hill Climb, according to the carmaker's Web site. After industrialist David Brown took over the company in 1947, his initials became part of several model names, including the Aston Martin DB5, made famous in the 1964 James Bond film "Goldfinger.''

Aston Martin built just 16,000 cars in its first 88 years, according to Edmunds.com. Under Ford, Aston Martin's production has risen from 46 in 1992 to about 6,500 in 2006. Ford has said the unit is profitable, without providing figures.

James Bond: The car gained worldwide fame when author Ian Fleming placed British secret agent Bond behind the wheel.