Aston Martin May Consider an IPO Next Spring

British luxury carmaker Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. may decide as early as next spring to launch an initial public offering in London, sources tell Bloomberg News.

They say stakeholders won’t make a decision until the company reports its financial results for 2017. Last year the company’s sales grew 16%, but its pretax losses grew 27% to £163 million ($203 million).

Whether Aston Martin will elect to move ahead with an IPO isn’t clear. The company has been pondering an offering for at least six years.

The carmaker, which sells about 4,000 vehicles per year, is in the midst of a seven-year plan to expand its lineup, hike sales volume and broaden its market appeal. Aston Martin will debut its first crossover vehicle, the DBX, in 2020. The company targets 5,000 sales per of the models, which it says will be more practical than its current array of high-performance luxury coupes and sedans.

Bloomberg says Aston Martin is inspired by the success of Ferrari NV, which was spun off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV 18 months ago. Ferrari’s share price has surged 60% since then and currently trades at a multiple of 14 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Bloomberg notes that a similar multiple for Aston Martin would value the company at about £2.3 billion ($3 billion). But it cautions that the British carmaker lacks the sales volume or cache of the Ferrari brand.