Syrian billionaire in last four for Aston Martin bid

Simon Halabi, the secretive Syrian-born billionaire who recently bought the Esporta fitness-club chain, has emerged as a surprise bidder on the short list to buy Aston Martin, the British carmaker put up for sale by Ford earlier this year - reports the Times.

Halabi, who features in the Sunday Times Rich List with a personal fortune of £2 billion, is keen to buy the marque made popular by James Bond because it has such a powerful image.

City sources said that bidding for Aston Martin had been particularly fierce and there was a strong chance that it could sell for more than £600m. UBS, the investment bank handling the sale, is understood to have whittled down a list of more than 30 parties who were sent information memorandums to four contenders.

It is believed that many of the original interested parties — including Jac Nasser, former chief executive of Ford, and Bernard Arnault and Albert Frère, two of Europe’s most prominent billionaires — have been knocked out of the race.

Halabi’s latest venture, the PM Club at the old In and Out Club in London’s Piccadilly, will be a six-star members’ club. His other assets include Mentmore Towers, a gothic pile in Buckinghamshire that was the setting for the latest Batman film.

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