Aston Martin posts jump in full-year sales, order book 'strong'

Aston Martin Lagonda posted a sharp jump in full-year revenues amid increasing output and record total average selling prices.

“Despite the operating environment, we ended the year with significantly improved growth, margin enhancement and positive free cash flow in Q4, exiting 2022 with the strongest order book in many years," executive chairman Lawrence Stroll said.

For the year ending on 31 December, the luxury sports car manufacturer reported a 26% jump in revenues to approximately £1.38bn.

Total wholesales, the number of vehicles sold including Specials, increased by 4% to 6,412.

The total average selling price rose to a record of over £200,000m with the ASP up by 18% in the core portfolio to £177,000.

Nevertheless, the company incurred in an operating loss of £141.8m or 85% more than in 2021, in part due to a £96m year-on-year increase in depreciation and amortisation expenses.

Those higher expenses were linked mainly to increased Valkyrie programme deliveries and, to a lesser extent, an accelerated amortisation of capitalised development costs ahead of the next generation of sports car launches.

Aston registered £127m of net cash inflows during the period, albeit alongside £299m of free cash outflows, including £287m for new model development and £139m of net cash interest payments.

In the fourth quarter alone, a free cash flow of £37m was recorded, thanks in part to strong profitability.

Looking out to 2023, the carmaker guided towards wholesale volume growth to around 7,000 vehicles and an adjusted margin on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation basis of about 20%.

Management also said that roughly 80% of the current range of GT/Sports cars for 2023 had already been sold and that the company was on track to meet its 2024/25 financial targets.

At period end, Aston's net debt stood at £765.5m for a 14% reduction on the year, despite a negative hit from US dollar strength of £156m.

Net cash on the company's books was at £583m.