The confirmation of Lawrence Stroll's massive £536 million fundraising effort pumped into Aston Martin last week was supposed to be a momentous occasion in helping the British sportscar manufacturer look towards a brighter and better future.
With Stroll's Yew Tree consortium bringing some financial muscle, including an injection of £260m of new capital, and shareholders approving a plan for Aston Martin's F1 works team, this should have been a win-win for everybody involved.
But in these unprecedented times of a global pandemic putting untold pressure on businesses, even those eye-watering cash figures were not enough to lift the gloom. Against the backdrop of the company warning that, even with Stroll's input as its future executive chairman, it did not have the capital to survive the next 12 months unless it changed path and found even more cash, the stock market gave its verdict on what it all meant.