Jefferies downgrades Aston Martin to ‘hold’

Jefferies downgraded its stance on Aston Martin Lagonda on Thursday to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ and cut the price target to 120p from 250p as it said it struggles to see a scenario that does not require new equity.

The bank said that in his first public move, new chief executive Adrian Hallmark did not shy away from hard decisions to reset an ambitious guidance.

"The incremental £135m liquidity secured early August should accommodate the incremental cash burn but leaves no room for error," it said.

Jefferies said that from there, it sees "high risk" that AML will need another equity injection, either for rescue, to kickstart deleveraging or an M&A scenario.

"We appreciate the latter two could be positive for equity value, but fundamental value does not support sufficient upside potential to remain ‘buy’," it said.

Jefferies cut its 2024 EBITDA estimate by 28% to £279m and raised its cash outflow estimate by more than three times to 424m, taking year-end net debt to £1.4bn.

At 0950 BST, the shares were down 1.7% at 106.70p.