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The bidding has already started. What do we have today. Ford Motor Co. exec has evidently started the bidding for the Jaguar and Land Rover autos. Some sources point out that there are already some potential bidders for these marques. According to hints these bidders have approached Magna about the probability of using the contract assembly operations of the company in order to build vehicles following the Ford’s signing off on a deal.

Some time ago observers in the UK tended to discard the idea of building Land Rover and Jaguar out of the Great Britain boundaries. All this comes from the British government which has some reasons for such objections. There is Gordon Brown, new Prime Minister of Great Britain, according to some rumors, is interested by the automobile ground intact. But the rise of the pound value makes it more complicated however.
Donald Walker, Magna chief executive officer, refused to give any comments the previous week during the conference. This was John Murphy of Merrill Lynch, an analyst, asked him about the possibility of Jags and Land Rover building for another company. Of course, the opinion is not so strict and extreme. Probably, some plant for Canada and the USA will do well for the whole company.
Meantime the position of the Prime minister and all other government members is difficult to change. This story seems to be as old as the Earth. For years these two British purely brand, especially Jaguar, have been an endles golden mine on the resources of the company.
Although, some reports rumor about a number of private equity suitors, which focus their attention on both, Land Rover and Jaguar. Certainly, they will not make a forecast for the Ford buyout, especially if to take into account that the sharp downturn in the bond and credit markets became worse last week.
One more ex-Ford exec is considered to be interested in Land Rover and Jaguar, this is Jacques Nasser. He was Ford’s chief executive in the period from 1999 till 2001.
Historical note: Ford bought Jaguar in 1999 and Land Rover a year later. For forming the Premier Automotive Group, Ford added these units to Aston Martin and Volvo. But this was not successful decision, Ford lost $12.7 billion in 2006.
According to some enthusiasts’ opinion, for example Alan Mulally, Jaguar and Land Rover and Ford President and CEO, expressed the idea that the percentage of successful sales of the two British brands is more then fifty.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Ford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.