One of Britain's most iconic brands, Aston Martin, is set to come to the market in what will be one of the most sought after offerings ever seen on the London Stock Exchange.

The listing, which could value the business at around £500m, will give hundreds of thousands of fans the chance to own a piece of the classic sports car maker at considerably less than the cost of one of its sports cars.
Its top of the range DBS costs £170,000 with its DB9 and Vanquish models coming in slightly cheaper.

The float has been discussed recently with the two Kuwaiti investment funds that control the business.

Aston's new chairman, David Richards, told the Daily Mail that he will come to the public market in three year's time to help fund the next round of expansion.

'We will look towards a partial IPO,' said Richards. 'It would be for the next level of investment to finance the next models and fund engine development work where clearly there'll be a requirement for further investment.

'It's too early days to say where we will list but British companies normally would go for a London listing.

'It would be a very interesting challenge for me and I can see that as the next step in my horizons. But an appropriate time would be three to five years from now.'

The timing of the float would also coincide with a deadline to repay £40m to former parent Ford which is due within the next four years.

Richards say he is also close to forging some new partnerships: 'One of the first tasks when the chains were unwrapped from Ford was to go out there and see who we could talk to, who was interested in working with us.

'We are close to doing a deal with two or three of them. We have also done investigations into areas where we may be able to extend the brand into alternative products other than automotive.'

Mercedes-Benz may have parted ways with McLaren, but the German automaker isn’t quite done with supercar tie-ups just yet. According to a new report, Mercedes is planning a partnership with Aston Martin that would include engine and transmission collaborations, hybrid technology development and even platform sharing.

Per a Car Magazine report, the top secret tie-up – which Mercedes has dubbed Project Alligator – would see Aston Martin using Mercedes engines, including AMG’s 6.2L V8 for use in Vantage models. Project Alligator would also allow Aston Martin access to Mercedes-Benz’ hybrid and diesel technologies, as well as Merc’s eight-speed automatic transmission.

In order to cut costs for both marques, the plan also calls for Aston and Mercedes to share platforms on range-topping models.

Mercedes’ ultra-luxury brand, Maybach, would also benefit from the tie-up as Project Alligator also includes plans for Aston Martin/Maybach cooperation on future models. We quite fancy the idea of a Maybach-badged Rapide.

Aston Martin announced earlier this year that it would relaunch its Lagonda brand by early next decade, but that appears to be just a small piece of Aston’s new brand strategy. In addition to relaunching the Lagonda nameplate, Aston Martin is also planning to move its own product offerings upscale.

The new strategy would see Aston Martin greatly reducing production and raising prices to equal that of comparable Ferrari models. Aston Martin is first testing the ultra-exclusive waters with its ultra-expensive One-77, the company’s newest low-volume supercar that will retail for an astonishing $1.75 million.

If the One-77’s market strategy works out for Aston Martin, the brand will likely expand the idea to its other model offerings. The would mean the marque’s “entry-level” Vantage would see a price hike from about $150,000 to $200,000+, while the step-up DB9 would see a pricing scheme more in line with the $277,000 DBS, according to Autoweek.

Aston Martin’s Gaydon production facility has been humming along at about 7,000 units per year for the last couple of years, but that figure would drop drastically with the company’s new up-market plan. No word on how much production would drop by, but there would likely be enough room to move Rapide production in-house from Austria, which indicates Vantage and DB9 production would fall to 4,000 or less units per year.

Rumors of a Mercedes-Benz-Aston Martin tie-up first surfaced just two months ago, but talks are progressing quickly with farther reaching partnerships now being discussed at the highest levels. In fact, talks have gone so well that the projected has been renamed from Project Alligator to Romeo and Juliet.

According to Car Magazine, the far-reaching tie-up will be worth at least €300, and will involve far more than just engine swapping.

Although not everyone in Mercedes-Benz’s camp is quite sold on the idea of an Aston Martin tie, Dieter Zetsche of Daimler and Aston’s Ulrich Bez are pushing the deal through rather quickly, with the possibility of the first joint project hitting the road in 2010. That’s the same year Daimler will refresh its Maybach line, a project has now been handed over to Aston Martin. If Aston does a good job with the Maybach re-do, the partnership will spill into more joint projects.

While the early stages of the partnership won’t see any Mercedes products re-dressed as Aston Martins, Mercedes will likely supply Aston with powerplant and transmission. That means that the next DB9 could use Mercedes’ twelve-cylinder engine and the company’s seven-speed transmission. Mercedes’ new hybrid system has also been part of the talks, with the first hybrid Aston Martin expected to make production within the next 10 years.

The second phase of the tie-up will begin around 2012, corresponding with Aston Martin’s re-launch of the Lagonda brand. Although the Lagonda brand will be under the control of Aston, its vehicle lineup will consist of Daimler-sourced models. The brand’s first model will be a luxury sedan, which will be largely based on the Maybach, albeit with mush sportier intentions. A GL-based SUV is also in the works, but Aston will do far less to disguise its Mercedes roots.

Further down the line, Lagonda could offer a four-seat coupe and convertible, both of which would be based on the Mercedes-Benz CL. There’s even a remote chance that the upcoming Mercedes Gull Wing could receive the Lagonda treatment, or that the CL could be re-badged as an Aston Martin DB10.

Stay tuned as more details on Romeo and Juliet are sure to pop up over the following weeks.

Supercar is a term generally used for high-end sports cars, whose performance is superior to that of its contemporaries. It has been defined specifically as "a very expensive, fast or powerful car with a centrally located engine",[1] and stated in more general terms: "it must be very fast, with sporting handling to match", "it should be sleek and eye-catching" and its price should be "one in a rarefied atmosphere of its own",[2] but the correct usage of the term is both subjective and disputed, especially amongst enthusiasts.