Tata Wins Jaguar, Land Rover

[MeraBoy]

India's Tata Motors (TTM) will be named on Dec. 21 as the winning bidder in the auction for Jaguar and Land Rover, according to a report in Britain's Birmingham Post newspaper. Tata will pay £1 billion, or about $2 billion, for the two Ford Motor (F) luxury auto brands, said the newspaper, which is based near Jaguar and Land Rover's home in the British midlands.

Ford spokesman Mark Truby said the company plans no announcements regarding a sale of the prestigious British brands. He said the U.S. automaker is still on track to announce the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover early next year.

Tata is vying with another Indian automaker, Mahindra & Mahindra (MAHM), as well as U.S. private equity firm One Equity Partners, for the units. Earlier this month those companies had submitted bids that ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion, said one person involved in the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are confidential.

Selling Off Marques

Cash-hungry Ford, which lost $12.6 billion last year but earned $88 million in the first nine months of 2007, has been looking to sell Jaguar and Land Rover. It has mortgaged its assets to borrow money to stay operating and expects to burn up $12 billion to $14 billion until 2009, when it plans to return to sustained profitability. Jaguar and Land Rover have been hit by unfavorable exchange rates and high production costs in Britain.

Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion in 1989 and Land Rover for $2.7 billion in 2000, joining them with Aston Martin and Volvo to form its Premier Automotive Group. Ford has not said how much it wants for the combined units.

Earlier this year Ford completed the sale of its controlling stake in Aston Martin for $931 million in cash and preferred stock. Ford has said it plans to keep Volvo for now, fixing its cost structure and making it a more premium brand.

Source:
Report: Tata Wins Jaguar, Land Rover

 

[curio888]

end of the world is near

 

[Lord_darkslide]

after this we can see TATA lorry...sticking a
Jaguar sticker on the windshiled...instead of the-over-use TYPE-R... hehehehhee

 

[scorza]

dude, u have no idea how big TATA group is..they're huge...u should see their concept cars...

 

[doppelganger]

bump:D
Go to www.tata.com..you'll see that is not a group, sorry conglomerate to laugh at..within 2006-2007..they made US$26.8billion in profits..so US$2 billion is just like 7% of their revenues..

 

[alien]

wow, this really opens my eyes up..
I've never thought Tata could be a major player in the car industry..

 

[s3iryu88]

Tata is a group, this is taken from wikipedia

* Tata Group, India's largest business group and multinational company
o Tata Motors, one of India's largest automobile company known for its hatchback motorvehicle Tata Indica
o Tata Steel, world's fifth largest steel producer
o Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT company
o Tata Elxsi, Another Tata IT company
o Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
o Tata Sky a satellite company in India
o Tata Tea Limited, also known as Tata-Tetley, is the world's second largest manufacturer and distributor of tea

source:Tata - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[si|verfish]

The Chinese and the Indians are moving up in this world. They've got the resources to compete certainly, sooner rather than later.

It is going to get rough for the established powerhouses. The little guys just don't stand a chance in the automotive industry of the near future. Which is why mergers and partnerships are so vital these days to retain competitiveness.

Even the big guns are trying to work out more and more ways to work together and cut cost (namely R&D) and increase economies of scale.

Little blokes like Proton will be squashed like a bug in the global market without a big brother looking over their shoulders.

 

[jeffbboyz]

no doubt Tata group is huge and trying to establish themselves in the world of automotives......

Jaguar and Land Rover is a good buy.....learning their technology and build competitive vehicles under the name of Tata.....

Previously BMW owns Land Rover before they sold it to Ford...and there is when they build their X5......

just my 2 cent......