Ford Motor is in exclusive talks with Prodrive, the sports racing firm, over a potential sale of its luxury car marque Aston Martin, The Times has learnt.

Sources said that Ford had selected Prodrive despite its trouble financing a bid because the racing group has offered a higher price, thought to be close to £450 million, than the other shortlisted bidders.

At least one of Aston’s other suitors, the UK buyout firm Doughty Hanson, dropped its offer to between £350 and £400 million after discovering certain previously undisclosed items in Aston Martin’s books. The items related to pensions, executive car perks and costs related to safety and engineering tests that were previously provided and paid for by Ford but that would now be the responsibility of Aston’s new owners.

The sources said that UBS, the Swiss investment bank running the sale, has contacted Doughty Hanson and the other shortlisted bidder, Simon Hilalbi, the Syrian property tycoon, and was moving ahead with the Prodrive group.

One source said, however, that Ford had not asked for non-public information on Aston Martin to be returned or destroyed, indicating it is keeping the door open for the other bidders in case Prodrive cannot secure its financing.

Prodrive runs Aston Martin’s racing team, although it is not owned by Ford or affiliated to it. Next year, it is due to enter Formula One with its own team. It also runs the Subaru world rally team.

Its founder, David Richards, is understood to be working with investors from the US and Middle East, including Naeem Capital, part of an Egyptian investment bank. British private equity group Apax owns a 49 per cent stake in Prodrive but is not working with Mr Richards on the Aston Martin deal. A sale could be announced as soon as next week, sources said.

Ford took a controlling stake in Aston Martin in 1987, but the troubled US carmaker last year decided to sell the marque, famed for its use in James Bond films, as part of a broad restructuring.

Aston Martin was deemed the most appropriate for a sale, rather than Jaguar, Land Rover or Volvo, since the Midlands-based carmaker had its own dealer network and factories.

When Ford kicked off the sale in August last year, projected earnings for 2007 before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were about £47 million. The fall in the dollar has reduced that to £38 million.

At least 30 groups were said to have expressed an interest in Aston Martin when Ford put it up for sale with a price tag of between $1 and $2 billion. The US carmaker received final offers for Aston Martin on January 31 and said that it would pick a preferred bidder by the end of February.

Ford and Prodrive declined to comment.

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