Sell Aston Martin shares, says bank which helped with float

The bank that helped float troubled car maker Aston Martin is now recommending that investors offload their shares.

The Teleraph reports that Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has cut its rating on the car manufacturer from neutral to sell, downgrading its target price from 550p to 400p.

Aston Martin floated just 12 months ago with shared priced at £19 each. By close of trading on Monday they had fallen to 434.7p – a fall of over 8% on the day.

BAML was one of four banks that organised Aston Martin’s IPO – and pocketed £30m for its advisory work.

BAML analyst Kai Mueller downgraded Aston, saying he expects no improvement in the company’s financial performance.

He also predicted that Aston Martin is likely to issue further profit warnings amd that he sees a troubled future for the company – and that it will be forced to find more funding.

In a statement BAML said: “With significantly increased leverage, we think the company would not be well positioned for any external shock with close to no more borrowing capacity.”