Ford Officially Negotiating With Tata To Sell Jaguar And Land Rover
Ford officially announced today “focused negotiations at a more detailed level” with the Indian carmaker Tata in regards to selling off it’s ownership of both Jaguar and Land Rover. The high end British manufacturers have been on the auctionblock for some time now, though this announcement effectively eliminates the two other competing bidders - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and One Equity Partners LLC.
“There is still a considerable amount of work to do, and while no final decision has been made, we will proceed with further substantive discussions with Tata Motors over the forthcoming weeks with a view to securing an agreement that is in the best interests of all parties concerned,” said Lewis Booth, executive vice president of Ford’s European units, in a statement.
Probably the most important aspect of the deal is Ford’s desire to maintain a similar relationship with the potential buyers of Jaguar and Land Rover as it does with Aston Martin - to remain a major supplier of engines and components even after-the-fact. Another major issue is that Ford, the biggest seller of automobiles in the UK, wants the new owner to retain the bulk of the existing 15,000+ British work force.
There has been no comments as to the cost of the two car companies, nor has there been any actual details of the negotiations released, aside from what we’ve already mentioned. We’ve been told to expect the sale of the two British automakers to go through sometime early this year.