Kuwaitis were buying a lot of British car companies in recent years, (Prodrive is their latest acquisition) but now they are realizing it was a pointless investment, because a car company should be controlled by another bigger car company, not some oil rich folks trying to blow up their money in style. So they are looking to sell 20 percent of their share in the British firm.

They bought 50 percent of them from ford last year but now after a year they wanna get rid of it somehow and they are even going to borrow money to refinance debts! check out what reports say :

The Islamic investment firm, which bought half of Aston Martin in 2007, is studying offers to sell a 10 to 20 percent stake in the carmaker on behalf of itself and some of its partners, executive vice-president Amr Abou El-Seoud said.

“We have offers … we are in talks but the (sale) should be value-added whether financially or technically,” Seoud told Reuters. “We are not considering selling and exiting.”

“It (could) be a maximum 10 to 20 percent of the company to be taken out of all investors, in other words, Dar’s dilution might be in 5 to 10 percent,” he said.

“There is a 60 to 70 percent chance that we will reach a deal soon.”

Seoud declined to identify possible buyers or give a reason for the sale but said Dar could also sell shares in the luxury carmaker to the public within three to five years.

Seoud also denied an al-Qabas newspaper report on Sunday that Dar had mortgaged banking and real estate assets, including its 19.2 percent stake in Boubyan Bank to secure financing.

nvestment Dar was in talks with several banks, including CBK, for loans to help it refinance short-term debt, he said.

“Ideally we should be seeking around 200 million dinars to 300 million dinars from banks,” Seoud said. “There is nothing finalised yet.”

Last month Kuwait’s government reached a deal with banks to provide loans to investment firms hit by the financial crisis.

source : Reuters