Chinese vehicle manufacturing giant Geely has acquired a 7.6% stake in Aston Martin, completing a round of funding in which the British firm raised £654 million.
Geely, which owns LEVC, Lotus, Lynk&Co, Polestar, Volvo and half of Smart, was rumoured to be considering a stake in Aston Martin as far back as 2020, before Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll's Yew Tree consortium took control at Gaydon.
More recently, Aston Martin revealed that it had rejected a proposed £1.3 billion investment package from Atlas Consortium - a group led by Geely and Investindustrial, the Italian owner of Morgan.
At the time, Atlas's offer was said to have "markedly overestimated the company's new equity capital requirements, would have been heavily dilutive for existing shareholders and comprised a number of execution obstacles".
