Aston Martin accelerates into third consecutive quarterly profit, eyes IPO

Aston Martin posted its third consecutive quarterly profit thanks to strong demand for its new DB11 grand tourer and a 67% increase in overall deliveries.

The UK based luxury carmaker had made considerable staffing cutbacks in the recent past, but shaken, not deterred it looked to expand its model range in an effort to reverse six consecutive years of losses.

In the second quarter of the year, Aston Martin delivered more vehicles than it did in the same period last year - and charged 25% more for those vehicles - leaving it with a half year revenue of £410.4m, almost twice 2016's full year amount.

"We are sold out beyond the end of the year and that’s helping prices," said chief executive Andy Palmer, who was brought over from Nissan in 2014.

Pre-tax profit for the second half came to £15.2m a significant improvement on the £52.6m pound loss it reported a year ago.

The firm anticipates EBITDA £175m, a 2.9% increase on the £170m it had previously forecast.

Aston Martin also said it was looking towards further diversification across its range thanks to a £550m refinancing undertaken during the half that gave the company more room to move on the research and development side, with products such as an electric version of the Rapide and a family friendly DBX on the horizon.

Vehicle production is on target for about 5,000 cars in 2017, and according to Bloomberg Aston Martin could be considering an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange within the next 12 months.