By Paul Whiston, July 10, 2025
Lawrence Stroll, the world’s poorest billionaire, has just won a leadership award—and I’m not entirely sure why. At The Daily Car Blog, we’ve long viewed such awards as meaningless—little more than marketing tools wrapped in the guise of recognition, designed to boost publicity and drive sales.
The award was handed out by an authoritative and established car news publication. Stroll, the world’s poorest billionaire, bought Aston Martin when it was financially on its knees. Thanks to his business efforts, the company managed to lift one knee off the ground, but the grim reaper of financial instability still lingers.
The article announcing the award is, of course, overwhelmingly positive. It has to be, doesn’t it? To the author’s credit, they did acknowledge Aston Martin’s faltering share price, which remains mysteriously and stubbornly low. But the reason for that is no mystery: Aston Martin is considered such a financial risk by banks that it struggles to secure loans. And the sharp-eyed speculators of the stock market loathe uncertainty and risk—they dump Aston Martin shares every time a bad trading quarter is posted.
Aston Martin currently carries as much debt as it earns in a year, and that debt isn’t shrinking. In fact, it grows year after year. The only way the company can raise funds is by issuing new shares to existing investors—a financial manoeuvre known as debt issuance, which is essentially the corporate equivalent of running a bar tab.
The article also noted that the world’s poorest billionaire, Lawrence Stroll, appears to focus more on the Formula 1 team than on the road car division during the brief interview. There’s a reason for that. If he makes a public statement that contradicts market expectations, it could trigger panic and drive the share price even lower.
Stroll, the world’s poorest billionaire, claimed that he expects the company to be cash-flow positive by the second half of the year. But he offered no explanation for how that will happen, and the article offered no pushback. Honestly, it sounded more like something you’d hear from a used car salesman than from a seasoned executive.
A quick glance at Aston Martin’s share price tells the real story. In July 2024, it hovered around 160.00p. By July 2025, it had slid to 79.85p. In fact, since the company listed on the stock market, the share price has plummeted by 98%.
Financial instability is an Aston Martin speciality; from its very beginnings, it was—and perhaps always will be—a business run by the wealthy for the wealthy.