(Alliance News) - Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC on Wednesday said it closed off 2022 with a better final quarter, hailing its "strongest order book in many years".

Shares in the company were 13% higher at 228.20 pence each in London on Wednesday morning, making it the best FTSE 250 performer.

The luxury carmaker's revenue rose 26% to GBP1.38 billion from GBP1.10 billion, though its pretax loss widened to GBP495.0 million from GBP213.8 million. Its bottom-line was hurt by a non-cash foreign exchange charge of GBP156 million amid a revaluation of dollar debt. Its foreign exchange charge in 2021 totalled just GBP12 million.

Aston Martin said it was profitable in the final quarter, however, reporting pretax profit of GBP16.3 million and swinging from a GBP25.2 million loss. Fourth quarter revenue rose 46% on-year to GBP524.3 million.

Executive Chair Lawrence Stroll said: "2022 saw Aston Martin continue to build on the strong foundations that have been established during my three years as executive chair. While the last 12 months presented industry-wide challenges, we look to the future with renewed confidence in our ability to deliver on our vision, and the targets we have set. Despite the operating environment, we ended the year with significantly improved growth, margin enhancement and positive free cash flow in Q4, exiting 2022 with the strongest order book in many years.

"As I have said before, I knew it would take multiple years to build Aston Martin into the world's most desirable ultra-luxury British performance brand. With the heavy lifting behind us, we are now poised to see the results of this transformation, starting in 2023. In addition to celebrating our 110th anniversary and our exciting line up of Specials, it will also see the start of our next generation of front-engine sports cars which will truly reposition Aston Martin for the future."

Stroll said the company is on track to meet its target of generating annual revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP2 billion and GBP500 million, respectively, by 2024/2025.

For 2023, it expects to deliver 7,000 wholesale units, a rise of 9.2% from 2022's 6,412. Last year's outcome was a 3.8% improvement from 6,178 in 2021.

It expects to grow its adjusted Ebitda margin to around 20%, from 13.8% in 2022, which itself was an improvement from 12.6% in 2021. In the fourth quarter alone, its adjusted Ebitda margin climbed to 21.1% from 18.3% a year prior.

The Gaydon, Warwickshire-based firm celebrates its 110th anniversary in 2023. There have been a series of changes at the top in recent years in a bid to boost its fortunes.

Canadian Stroll became executive chair in April 2020. He was part of the Yew Tree consortium which bought roughly a 20% stake in the company back in 2020.

More recently, Chinese vehicle manufacturer snapped up a 7.6% stake in Aston Martin in September 2022. In July, it said Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund also invested in the company.

In May, Aston Martin named Amedeo Felisa as chief executive officer, replacing Tobias Moers.

By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor

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