Bid for Jaguar closer

Aug 1 2007 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

Jaguar cars at Halewood

MUMBAI-BASED Tata Motors will this week start due diligence ahead of a formal bid to acquire Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands, according to reports in India’s press.

Such a deal would represent Tata Group’s second acquisition this year of a major British manufacturer after completing the purchase of steelmaker Corus a few months ago.

The news about Tata’s interest comes after Ford last month revealed it had drawn up a shortlist of potential bidders for the two brands, both of which are made at Ford’s Halewood car plant on Merseyside, where around 2,000 staff are anxiously awaiting news about its future.

Neither Ford nor Tata would confirm or deny that talks were taking place between them. Nor would a Ford spokesman comment on reports that it wanted to include a requirement to maintain manufacturing at its existing Jaguar and Land Rover locations for the next five years as part of any deal.

Tata has already shown it has the financial muscle to acquire the car brands, which are on the market for an estimated £750m. The Indian group’s acquisition of Corus was worth £6.7bn and was the biggest-ever takeover of a for- eign firm by an Indian company.

Reports in the Hindustan Times cited sources close to the talks saying that Tata Motors’ evalu- ation of a bid was at an “explorat- ory” stage and may not lead to a formal bid for the two brands.

Ford has asked all bidders to sign a confidentiality agreements in recent days to prevent details leaking to the media.

Besides Tata, other car makers from the Middle East and Far East may be interested in bidding.

A formal auction would also be likely to attract private equity firms such as Cerberus, the US buyout firm which acquired Chrysler earlier this year for $7.5bn.

Ford bought Jaguar for £1.6bn in 1989 and Land Rover from BMW for £1.7bn in 2000.

Last night, Russia’s Gaz Group denied it was one of the potential bidders for the two marques that include the Halewood made Jaguar X-type and Freelander2.

BILL GLEESON: PAGE 8

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