Details of the Middle Eastern money backing the buyout of Aston Martin emerged yesterday.
Ford is close to agreeing the £450m sale of the classic British car business to a consortium led by the motor enthusiast David Richards and an announcement could be made as early as today.
The US auto manufacturer is being forced to sell off the luxury sports car brand in an effort to repair its balance sheet - but will hold on to a share of around 15%.
Ford has been in exclusive negotiations with Mr Richards for the past few weeks. The British businessman has secured backing from, among others, the Kuwaiti firms Investment Dar and Adeem Investment. Another name that has been mentioned as a backer is Naeem Capital, part of an Egyptian investment bank. Mr Richards is also said to have won support from US investors.
Investment funds from the Gulf region are eager to diversify and have been buying up assets in Britain including Madame Tussauds, P&O and Veridian, the main electricity supplier in Northern Ireland. Dubai International Capital owns a $1bn stake in DaimlerChrysler and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Co owns 5% of Ferrari.
The agreement between Ford and the consortium has been hailed by fans of the quintessentially British car as a great day for British motoring.
Mr Richards, 54, a former accountant, is the founder of Prodrive, the group that runs Aston Martin's racing team, and has long harboured ambitions to run his own manufacturing operation. He is the former head of the BAR Honda and Benetton formula one teams and he has a private collection of classic Aston Martins. Barring any last minute hitches, he will become Aston Martin chairman.
The Aston Martin chief executive, German born Ulrich Bez, has overseen a remarkable turnaround in the marque's fortunes and is expected to remain at the company. In 1992, production skidded to only 46 cars. Under Mr Bez, it has risen to 7,000 cars last year and the company is in profit. Mr Richard's medium term ambition is to increase that number to 10,000, reports suggest. He also plans to keep building the Aston Martin range, including the Rapide, a new four-door coupe.
Aston Martin has had a long and fruitful association with the James Bond films - Daniel Craig was behind the wheel of an Aston Martin DBS in Casino Royale.
Ford took a controlling stake in Aston Martin in 1987 and acquired full ownership in 1994. It announced plans to sell the company almost six months ago. Ford last year lost $12.7bn (£6.6bn) and announced plans to lay off 44,000 workers and close 16 plants. Ford could now turn its attention again to the sale of its other two luxury British car-makers, Jaguar and Land Rover.
Mr Richards saw off competition from the private equity group Doughty Hanson and Simon Halabi, the Syrian billionaire.
Aston Martin produced its first car in 1914. The firm was bought by the Yorkshire tractor maker David Brown in 1947. When he sold the business 25 years later it was in poor shape. Several owners followed before Ford bought the business. The company employs 1,700 workers at plants including Gaydon in Warwickshire and Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire.
