Hello again to any of you guys who still come on here. Just thought id look in and see if the board was still up and running. I cant belive that after the great new models and all the advertising and hype that ford have put into Jaguar they now want to sell it. What do you guys think... (i,ll check back in 6months for replies LOL) PS. if it works there is a recent 12/06/07 article attached below with more indepth info about the propposed sell off. TTFN.
Car giant Ford plans to sell the iconic British brands Jaguar and Land Rover. The company has hired investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to arrange the sale.
Land Rover is thought to make a profit, but Jaguar has been loss-making for years.
The US car company is thought to be in early-stage talks with several potential buyers, although Fiat and Renault have dismissed speculation that they are interested in buying the British marques.
Jaguar and Land Rover have been a huge financial drain on Ford, which lost $12.6bn (£6.3bn) last year, and there have been rumours for months that it would offload the two divisions.
Ford is reported to have briefed British politicians of its plan to sell the brands.
The two brands, along with Volvo, form part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG). However, Volvo is not thought to be for sale at this point. Jaguar and Land Rover share production facilities, and so a disposal of the companies separately would be complicated.
The sale is believed to have been code- named Project Swift because Ford is looking for a quick sale. Potential buyers will inevitably include private equity firms, although Alchemy Partners denied reports yesterday that it planned a £3bn bid. In March, Ford agreed to sell another PAG marque, Aston Martin, to two Kuwait investment companies.
Land Rover is thought to make a profit, but Jaguar has been lossmaking for years. The PAG group lost $2.32bn last year, but is expected to return to profit this year.
Analysts questioned why Ford wants to sell now.
Eric Wallbank, at Ernst & Young, said: "Ford raised $20bn last year to fund a turnround, and so it does not need extra cash. They might get more money for PAG once it had a track record of making profits."
Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5bn, and Land Rover in 2000 for $2.73bn.
A bit worrying, but it could go anyway really.Got my fingers crossed that only good will come of it as it would be a sad day if the cat were to end up being laid to rest :(
I was hoping JCB would buy Jaguar.
They are British and then we could say we drive a JCB GT!!
:P
Anyway, the new XK looks too much like a Toyota and the 'Audi-ising' of the XJ really shows that Ford have lost the plot, time for a change.