Found this interesting about both Aston Martin and Funding Circle
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Is the Hallelujah because itâs in the app or for the plummeting share price? 
The former. The latter just means I can get a little extra 
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Sweet! Management at Aston Martin are pretty mental to demand Ferrari-like comps.
Anyways, how did you all find out about the new additions? I think there should be an email or notification to notify users that new stocks have been added (or removed).
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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Email / push notification for new additions to the Stock Universe
The max time line for AML is odd given there isnât public data that stretches far back enough to trace such a graph⌠unless Iâm missing something?
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That looks like it could be another bug, that oneâs been reported already & weâre looking into it.
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Most likely. Considering that Index trackers will soon start mass buying the stock once it is part of the index, other investors decided to grab it beforehand, and benefit from a further increase which is very likely once the comany enters the index.
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Oh yeah, Brexit. If only thereâd been something in the news about that 
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Electric future plans
I have no idea how to value a traditional luxury car company or calculate a proper intrinsic value or a giant, such as VW or whatever, in todayâs ever changing world. But one thing is certainâyou have to consider the years 2030, 2035 and 2040, at least in the UK, when the sale of fossil fuel-powered cars is [scheduled to end](The UK wants to put electric car charging points in all new homes to support EV adoption | Electrek) (Electrec).
The UK is promoting the legislation as the first of its kind in the world as it moves to increase electric vehicle adoption. Sales of new petrol and diesel cars are set to end in the UK by 2040, and thereâs been talk about moving that deadline up earlier, to 2030 or 2035.
According to the BBC , the committee believes electric cars will cost around the same as diesel and petrol cars by 2024-25, and sees 2030 as a âfeasibleâ date to ban sales of ICE cars. Setting an earlier date would do more to ensure diesel and petrol cars are off the road by 2050, when the UK government is aiming for zero carbon emissions in total.
Also, hereâs what Aston Martin has to say about its electric stuffâthey are working on Tesla competitor called Lagonda or something(source: DrivingElectric) (NOTE: so are Daimler and just about everyone else):
JC: "Theyâre primarily existing Aston Martin owners, wanting more luxury. The pinnacle of electric cars right now is the Tesla Model S and X and weâre seeing customers who currently have an Aston Martin DB11 and a Tesla. They want to combine the best of both worlds and own something truly exquisite that they can still use; the Rapide E does that.
âŚ
âFor Lagonda, the engineering teams are still working on what the final battery solution will be. The industry is changing every day; it has changed massively even since we started Rapide E. So itâs not necessarily a Hyperbat battery that will go into the Lagonda, but itâs a possibility.â
⌠Lagonda will be the first luxury electric-only brand. Who knows in the future, but there wonât be another Aston Martin purely electric car for a while â the focus there is on hybridisation."
They say at the end there that they wonât be 100% electric, focussing more on the hybrid market?
I find that an interesting compromise for them. Makes them different to Tesla, canât help but feel itâs a bit backwards however.
Crazy that the IPO raised no new contingency funds for Aston Martin themselves. Just a private dump onto public market:
Classic earnings management (saturating wholesaler showrooms) ahead of the IPO:
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Average company, bad balance sheet. At least the F1 team it is sponsoring is doing OKish (and they get their money from selling a number one energy drink).
If you read one book this year about investing, get Peter Thielâs Zero to One. But itâs not really about investingâit can teach you to spot a good business and how to set up one or become a unicorn. Heâs invested in SpaceX, Tesla and âco-foundedâ PayPal back when there was no e-payments in the 1990s and used to compete with Elon Muskâs X.com before he merged his Confinity with X. The lessonâif a customer has a choice no matter how ânicheâ you think your business is, youâre like a Michelin-star rated restaurant (they canât scale, have to survive, have to compete with a local takeaway shop and even McDonaldâs). Tesla has this problem too but so far itâs had a loyal customer base (and has not relied on advertising).
Astonâs competitors are not just the Lambos and Ferraris. Itâs the VWs and BMWs who make nice-looking top market cars. Aston is a not a âzero to oneâ company, itâs âone to manyâ. Red Bull is a zero to one company despite the illusion of âcompetitionâ.
Forget EPS and prestige, look at the balance sheet
If you have access to investing into top private equity funds, do that. Their portfolio companies are just like those drivers you can summon via an app.
The PE owners, unlike venture capitalists and angel investors, typically put little cash and lots of debt on the companyâs balance sheet after a takeoverâitâs called a leveraged buyout (an LBO). They donât have much skin in the game. With that kind of leverage, a PE company can invest a small amount of own equity (cash) and a large amount of debt that puts pressure on the company itself. When a PE company cashes out via a sale to another PE firm, a different company, or an IPO, PE guys can get a juicy return. Who cares about the portfolio company (read: Aston).
Aston has a ton of debtâabout ÂŁ700m at the end of last year (see pages 185-186 in the annual report⌠note, they have released 1st quarter earnings too). In the worst case scenario, a company that cannot service interest payments or cannot further refinance the debt, it has to restructure and a lot of equity holders get wiped out.
The debt back then was mostly made up of the so-called high yield bondsâusually issued by companies with a speculative (junk) credit rating/creditworthiness. They totalled $400mln and ÂŁ230mln (+ another ÂŁ55mln). They wonât mature until 2022 but until then Aston has to find either: a) another ownerâan auto company, for exampleâwho can buy the company with cash and repay the debt; 2) new high yield bond investors to refinance that sort of unsustainable debt during 2020-2022; 3) a bank that would be willing to refinance the high yield bonds with a loan.
Meanwhile, the company has to make sure it is performing well. Otherwise, itâs corporate and debt restructuring time.
The CEO was paid nearly ÂŁ1mln in 2018.
Disclosure: never owned shares in Aston 
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Hitting new lows today at 460
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