Tata mulls Jaguar, Land Rover buy

Ford reported losses of $12.6 billion last year.

When Ford sold another luxury brand, Aston Martin, for $848 million in March, it had denied any plans to sell the other divisions of its Premier Automotive Group, which include Jaguar, Land Rover and the Swedish carmaker Volvo.

However, Ford spokesman John Gardiner recently said the company was "actively" studying options that could include the sale of its legendary British nameplates Jaguar and Land Rover as part of a company-wide strategic review.

British newspaper, The Sunday Times, citing unnamed sources, said this week that the decision to sell Volvo was made in the past two weeks, but that the timing of the sale had yet to be decided. No bank had been appointed to handle the transaction, the newspaper said, adding the deal could be worth $8 billion.

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5 billion, Volvo's car operations in 1999 from Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion and Land Rover in 2000 from BMW for $2.73 billion.

TATA'S INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

Industry watchers claim that if Tata is successful, the deal would rank among India's biggest overseas takeover deals. The Tata Group, which has been involved in major overseas takeovers in recent times, including the £6.7 billion acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus through Tata Steel earlier this year, reported revenues of $21.9 billion in 2005-06.

Tata Group has business interests spanning engineering, mining and energy to consumer products, IT and hotels and has operations in more than 40 countries.

Tata Motors, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2004, has been making rapid strides for a greater share of the global auto business.

It has a partnership with Fiat that gives it access to the Italian auto major's world-class powertrains for its next generation car offerings and also helps it to penetrate foreign markets.