Aston Martin: no departure in sight for Lawrence Stroll
While the future of Lawrence Stroll at the helm of Aston Martin is subject to much speculation, a portion of the team's shares has been acquired by Arctos. According to Aston Martin Formula 1 team's CEO, Jeff Slack, this sale does not indicate anything about Lawrence Stroll's future.
Aston Martin sold shares of the company to Arctos, who holds interests in several MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS franchises, as well as European football teams, including Liverpool FC. This decision has led to suggestions that Lawrence Stroll may consider ending his involvement in the team and that there may be new share sales.
However, the agreement with Arctos is considered strategic, with the new partners bringing new knowledge and new contacts, just like Alpine’s recent agreement with American investors.
Lawrence is all in, he’s not going anywhere. […] It’s not just the team, but he has this thing called Aston Martin Lagonda that is also a pretty important part of his life, said Jeff Slack, CEO of the British racing team.
The team is therefore the marketing platform of Aston Martin Lagonda. And of course, Lawrence is someone very wealthy, it’s not a question of capital.
Jeff Slack wants to remind of the importance and especially the role of these shareholders within Aston Martin. « The other thing to know, if you look closely, they never control, they never own or operate anything, only minority stakes. They will never be control operators, they will never be owners of this team ».
« This shows that if Lawrence tried to sell to someone who could ultimately take control, they would be the last ones he would sell to. » Slack, however, emphasized that Arctos was the ideal partner for the team.
“We met them two years ago,” he said. “They are truly the best in their category. They specialize in long-term minority holdings and large franchises. Not many people do this, even though you get a lot more money invested in sports and institutional capital. These guys are the leaders in this field.”
Expanding upon what the team could gain from this agreement, Slack stated: “I think we need to be open-minded. No one does things perfectly or in the best way. And an outside perspective is necessary to ask ourselves how we, as a company, can do better?”
Slack stated that the interest of American investors in teams is a positive sign for Formula 1 as a whole, with values continuing to increase. This is the next evolution, and it also gives us the right financial partner to do what we need and invest as we wish. Not that Lawrence couldn’t do it, but now he has a real partner who is doing this to evolve.
