RIYADH: Aston Martin plans to raise $772 million from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as it tries to trim debt and free up money for future products, according to a Bloomberg report. The luxury sports carmaker intends to issue 23.3 million new shares to the PIF at $3.97 a share, thus giving it 17 percent of its share, the company said in a filing. Aston Martin will also undertake a rights issue with the PIF, Stroll’s Yew Tree Consortium, and Mercedes-Benz AG, investing a combined $397 million, Bloomberg reported. The announcement from Aston Martin comes just five months after its chairman Lawrence Stroll declared that it had plenty of cash. “With this capital raise, we are able to remove the significant overhang on our business,” Stroll has been quoted as saying in the report. He added that Astron’s financial progress has been slowed recently due to legacy issues inherited from previous management and the downturn in China. He further noted that Aston Martin expects to complete the capital raise by the end of September.