Lawrence Stroll, the Quebec billionaire leading the luxury carmaker’s effort to reverse widening financial losses, has explored a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to take the company private, according to a Financial Times report citing three unnamed sources. Aston Martin said it was “not in talks with PIF” to go private. (Financial Times)

Talking point: The reported discussions reinforce the extent of Aston Martin’s struggles in recent years. The automaker’s stock now sits 99 per cent below its 2018 debut price. Stroll is heavily invested in Aston Martin, and has sought to elevate the company’s standing via the Formula One racing circuit. In 2020, Stroll’s consortium of investors, Yew Tree, acquired a $316-million stake in the company, and the group later expanded that position in 2023 and 2025, giving it a 33 per cent stake. Those capital injections have failed to stem losses, however, and Aston Martin last month issued its second profit warning of the year, citing U.S. tariff impacts and diminished Chinese demand.