Aston Martin’s boss will land more than £31m if the company’s flotation prices at the top of the range it announced on Thursday.

The sports car manufacturer hopes to be valued at almost £5.1bn if it hits the top of the £17.50 to £22.50 per share spread revealed by documents for its London flotation.

On listing, chief executive Andy Palmer’s incentive scheme will crystallise, giving him a theoretical payout of £31.4m and a 0.6pc holding in the business, though this is subject to a four-year lock-up.

The listing documents also reveal he will get a 20pc pay rise when Aston floats, taking his base salary to £1.2m. He will also be in line for a bonus of up to twice his pay and share awards of up to three times.

Mr Palmer was parachuted in to Aston four years ago from Nissan and has driven an impressive turnaround of the company.

Under his control the 105-year-old business has returned to profit and launched a swathe of new cars.

The chief executive’s “Second Century” plan also includes the introduction of Aston’s first sports utility vehicle, the DBX, as well as electric drive trains, and lucrative limited-edition models such as the £2m-plus Valkyrie.

If Aston prices at the top of the range, the business will be worth 10 times the amount its private equity backers paid for it when they acquired it from Ford in 2007.

A 25pc stake in Aston - equating to about 57m shares - is being sold by existing shareholders, including Investindustrial, Adeem Investments, Primewagon and senior management. 

German car giant Daimler will remain a stakeholder and convert its current non-voting stake of 4.9pc to shares.

Even if it prices at the middle of the range, the float - one of that largest in London for years - is likely to see the company driven into the FTSE 100 index. It would be the first car maker in the top tier since Jaguar was taken private in 1990.

Mr Palmer is said to see a car maker with a blue-chip listing as his “dream”.

However, there are questions about the whether Aston - which will trade under the ticker AML - is worth such a price.

Professor David Bailey of Aston university called Aston’s target “optimistic”.

“The multiple is higher than Ferrari - which is more profitable - and it doesn’t take into account Aston’s debt or need to spend on R&D,” he said.

Italian supercar company Ferrari floated three years ago with a $10bn valuation, when it was producing just over 7,500 cars a year and generating net profit of €290m (£257m) on revenues of €2.8bn. By contrast, in its last financial year Aston made annual revenues of £876m and a pre-tax profit of £87m.

“The valuation doesn’t stack up. I’m greatly impressed with what Aston has done of late but that’s a very recent turnover of a firm with a poor long-term track record on profitability,” Mr Bailey said.

Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said the pricing “demands a high level of confidence in Aston’s plans”. These include increasing sales from 5,117 vehicles last year to 12,000 in the medium term.

Mr Ellinghorst calculated that from its most recent annual results, the mid-point of the range represents a price earnings multiple of 57 times.

If Aston achieves its targets, this ratio drops to 18 times for 2020, assuming the company steadily increases revenue at a rate of 25pc a year and raises its profit margin.

“Whether Aston can execute remains to be seen,” Mr Ellinghorst said. He added that Astron’s accounting method of capitalising 95pc of R&D spending “elevates reported margins and earnings in the short term”.

“Revenue growth is going to be critical to maintain profitability levels as depreciation and amortisation flows through in coming years,” he added.

The challenge is further highlighted by Aston’s cars selling at lower prices than Ferrari’s, meaning the British company needs to “shift upmarket even further in a big way to justify such a valuation”, he added.

Final pricing of the IPO (initial public offering) is expected to be announced on or around October 3, when shares will start conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange. Unconditional trading will start on or around October 8.

Bankers on the deal - which include Deutsche, Goldman Sachs JP Morgan and Lazard - stand to earn almost £20m on the deal.