The Kuwaiti owner of Aston Martin can only sell a “minority stake” in the luxury UK carmaker if it wants to avoid upsetting the company’s capital structure, according to two people familiar with the matter.

As reported by Financial News on Friday, The Investment Dar - a Kuwaiti finance house - is close to securing the sale of a stake in the business to Investindustrial, an Italian private equity firm. The Italian bid is facing competition from a rival offer from Mahindra & Mahindra, a Indian carmaker.