Aston Martin’s St Athan project is rolling ahead and another 300 people are being interviewed for jobs as a further £500M investment is raised for the company.

A business consortium led by motor sport billionaire and Racing Point F1 team’s Canadian owner Lawrence Stroll has bought 45.6m new ordinary shares to make him executive chairman.

This will bring in £182M and a further £318M will be added from additional shares taken up by existing major investors.

The boost is needed to offset losses due to slower than expected sales in 2019 and the rising costs associated with the St Athan plant’s investment to build the DBX luxury SUV from Q2 2020.

The new Aston Martin DBX SUV will be a pivotal model for the company and firmly put Wales on the map for motor manufacturing.

Economy Minister Ken Skates said: “Aston Martin’s move to St Athan is a huge vote of confidence in Wales. The number of orders for the new DBX is very encouraging as the company prepares to double the size of its St Athan workforce to more than 600 by April this year.

“We have been continually assured by the company that St Athan is a priority for the company and we look forward to see it go from strength to strength. Today’s announcement is set to put the company in a good position to do just that as it goes forward into the future.”

About 300 people are currently in St Athan and it’s ramping up production at the site which will become the luxury car maker’s future centre for electrification, bringing the Lagonda name back on the road in a couple of years as well.

At the same time as AML announced its boost to the business, Ineos Automotive started interviewing potential employees in Cardiff for its new Grenadier production factory at Brocastle, Bridgend, which is expected to begin manufacturing in summer 2021 for worldwide sale.

Stroll’s investment also means the Racing Point F1 team will be rebranded Aston Martin from 2021.