Tata (Yes, TATA) to buy Jaguar and Land Rover

[hesonly5]

Just read this on the BBC site.

 

Car giant Ford is to sell its luxury UK-based car marques Jaguar and Land Rover to Indian company Tata.

 

Tata, India's biggest vehicle maker, is likely to pay about $2bn (£1bn) in the deal, although analysts will be keen to see the exact price and terms.

The lengthy sale process started last June when Ford announced its intention to sell the companies as a package.

 

 

 

Jaguar and Land Rover employ about 16,000 staff at plants across the West Midlands and Merseyside.

 

 

 

Tata accounts for more than half of the sub-continent's truck market and has about 20% of India's car market.

 

 

The car workers union, Unite, has said that Tata was the preferred bidder for the company.

BBC business editor, Robert Peston said: "Tata will commit to following an existing five year plan to invest in and develop the car manufacturing businesses. "

 

 

 

"Jaguar and Land Rover require hundreds of millions in investment over the next few years.

 

 

 

"And returning Jaguar to profitability will neither be easy or without risks," he added.

 

 

 

Robert also said that, to reassure the workforce, Ford will inject £300m into Jaguar and Land Rover pension funds.

 

 

Jaguar losses

In January, Tata launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, priced at $2,500 (£1,250).

 

 

 

By contrast, the starting price for Jaguar's latest sports car, the XF is more than £32,000 ($64,000).

 

 

Ford has never given any details about Jaguar's financial performance.

But it is thought that Ford has invested about $10bn in Jaguar since buying it in 1989, for $2.5bn.

 

 

 

Despite that investment, analyst say that Jaguar has never made a profit for Ford.

 

 

 

However, Land Rover has been profitable under Ford's ownership.

 

Right...

[Andreas¹]

...? :wtf:

 

Yeah, Jaguar and Land Rover.. Indian?! that's just... wrong!

 

Oh.. how much is "£1bn"?

[Iced_Bullet]

The statment £2bn = £1bn is actually wrong :p

 

American Billion: 1 000 000 000 (1 thousand million)

English Billion: 1 000 000 000 000 (1 million milliion)

 

So, Andreaz, £1bn is either £1,000,000,000,000.00 in english currency talk, or £1,000,000,000.00 usuing the American currency talk.

[Who]

hang on, everyone is hufty about jag and landrover being owned by an indian manufacturer (which up until a relatively short while ago, was a country britain owned) but when they were owned by a country that is incapable of pronouncing Jaguar correctly (jag-u-are not jag-wah) no-one cared?

 

good for tata, they are a prosperous company which looks like it will be going places, the company has its priorities right too, (watch the unveiling video for the tata nano to see what i mean)

[Andreas¹]

The statment £2bn = £1bn is actually wrong :p

 

American Billion: 1 000 000 000 (1 thousand million)

English Billion: 1 000 000 000 000 (1 million milliion)

 

So, Andreaz, £1bn is either £1,000,000,000,000.00 in english currency talk, or £1,000,000,000.00 usuing the American currency talk.

Okai... That's... lot's of moneh :P

[Nige]

Well atleast neither company is now owned by the evil Ford Mo Co :D.

 

 

GM should have brought them :D:rolleyes: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

I honestly belive TATA will be right for Jaguar & Land Rover and hopefully make Jaguar a much better car company without sacrificing quality.

[Who]

yeah, GM would be great to own jaguar, i mean, imagine how much money they could save by having brushed aluminum *effect* plastic in the interior of the New XF. Pleather wouldn't go too bad too. as for Landrover, well, who needs a 4x4 to be practical, im sure no-one would mind if GM made them useless off-road to appeal to the school run mothers, much like the beloved frontera!

[Nige]

yeah, GM would be great to own jaguar, i mean, imagine how much money they could save by having brushed aluminum *effect* plastic in the interior of the New XF. Pleather wouldn't go too bad too. as for Landrover, well, who needs a 4x4 to be practical, im sure no-one would mind if GM made them useless off-road to appeal to the school run mothers, much like the beloved frontera!

 

You know whats funny about that is most people who buy Land Rovers never take them anywhere near the country, its just for thE urban commute :D.

 

Unless we are talking about the defender now thats a Land Rover to be proud of :D.

 

I was only joking about GM buying them anyway, they couldn't afford it afterall GM like Ford is cost cutting everywhere because just like Ford they are in the red !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ohhh glory days for the Japanese motor companies :D.

[Who]

id argue the landy comment, only the freelander is a mum car really, the new disco is a bit too, but that's ford's influence for you. the Discovery, and the defender produced under Rover were the best of the bunch, before ford got their mitts on landrover and softened it down, bloody americans...

[Baldy]

i take my range rovers off road quite often, so they need to make sure that they keep the build quality the same. Just as long as they keep the brands going and don't change them to Tata i'm not too bothered about this take over.

[Nige]

i take my range rovers off road quite often, so they need to make sure that they keep the build quality the same. Just as long as they keep the brands going and don't change them to Tata i'm not too bothered about this take over.

 

You got more than one :eek: ??????????????????????

 

 

I don't need a Land Rover I am perfectly fine driving my little 1.2l Punto, I feel much cooler :D:rolleyes:.

 

Besides I don't live in the country so I don't need one :D.

[Baldy]

yes but only due to work requirements anyway, i hate 4x4's being used by mums in the city, what is the point, whereas i need to visit places that are away from roads and down country lanes so 4x4's come in useful for that i also use the field i own near my home to avoid traffic delays, so again a 4x4 is useful.

[Car Freak]

To the first post:

 

Big Deal!!! Who cares who owns it, as long as they make good cars... Just look at Lotus right now. Under Proton (malaysian) and still going strong!

[DriftNismo]

Yeah, i had about Jaguar last week but Land Rover!!! Hopefully they'll make a big batch of Range Rover Vogues before they are bought out. Ah well, Jaguar won't matter that much, it might turn out good this time and we won't end up with glorified mondys.

[The Queen]

No offence but I had no idea that Tata had that kind of money. This will be interesting to see ;)

[YeOldeTDUMan]

Well I knew about this ages ago when it was first mentioned ...

 

For those of you who don't know TATA are a very large company ... a while back they bought a company called CORUS ... previously known as British Steel! Also they're family owned which is refreshing these days

 

As to what happens to JLR I hope it's good news ... to some extent Ford lost their way with Jaguar in trying to make it compete against BMW (the reason for the X-Type, S-Type and Diesel engines!) ... however the plus side is Ford did bucketloads to improve the build quality of both Jaguar and Land Rover.

 

Lets just hope TATA understand the brands and use them properly.

 

Could certainly be interesting as TATA have some great ideas ... just look at the Nano ... a great solution to a problem.

 

 

Oh and isn't everyone forgetting that they were owned by an American Company ... not many 'truely' British companies left ... apart from the 'cottage industry' ones ... Bristol, Morgan, etc