It seems that two Indian firms are to fight over for the ownership of Ford’s iconic British car brands, Jaguar and Land Rover--- Tatas and Mahindra & Mahindra but One Equity Partners, a buyout firm funded by US investment bank JP Morgan, is also part of the final list.
Ford is currently struggling with declining sales and a falling US market share and last week it has announced that it was nearing a deal to finally let go of Jaguar and Land Rover. It has also posted a third quarter net loss of $380 million which is lesser than its previous loss incurred for the same period which reaches $5.2 billion.
It was last June when Ford has started exploring the possibility of a sale for its British car brands which led to the selling of the famous Aston Martin last March to a Kuwait-backed consortium.
From the interested buyers of Jaguar and Land Rover, the Mahindra & Mahindra has previously backed up from the bidding process since its basic interest is to acquire Land Rover which is rather contradictory to what Ford wants and that is to sell Jaguar and Land Rover together and not separately.
After probably reconsidering things, the Indian company Mahindra & Mahindra has rejoined the auction but now partners with Apollo in a break-up bid that would given each one of the brands. Meanwhile, Tata Motors another contender for the Jaguar and Land Rover has entered a joint venture with Fiat the producer of Alfa Romeo catalytic converter to produce cars.
Earlier this month Ford has called for six second-round offers, that is according to people familiar with the negotiation. The Detroit-based automaker has evaluated all the offers and has selected the three parties with the highest bids that is again according to unnamed sources quoted by Hindustan Times. Moreover, the bidders are also expected to discuss with the trade unions as well as the UK government with regards to the conservation of jobs despite speculations that some of the bidders may try to transfer production outside UK.
Aside from mentioned companies, buyout firms of which include TPG, Terra Firma and Ripplewood were the other bidders expected to make second-round offers however they were not included on the third-round shortlist. It can be noted that John Murphy, an analyst from Merrill Lynch had previously valued the two brands at $1.5 billion.