Tata Motors may bid for Ford`s Jaguar and Land Rover, roll out Ferrari

18 July 2007

Mumbai: Tata Motors is looking at a possible bid for acquiring the Jaguar and Land Rover models from Ford Motor, even as Italian sports car maker Ferrari is planning to tie up with the Tata Group to roll out its cars in India, media reports said.

Tata Motors is in the early stages of evaluating a bid for Ford''s Jaguar and Land Rover marques, which, if completed, would rank among India''s biggest overseas takeover deals, The Daily Telegraph said in a report.

Ratan Tata, chief of the Tata group, is understood to have instructed advisers in the past fortnight to begin evaluating the merits of a joint bid for Jaguar and Land Rover, which the struggling US carmaker Ford Motors has been trying to dispose of, the report said.

The report, however, said Tata Motors'' evaluation of a bid was at an "exploratory" stage and may not lead to a formal bid. The acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover may cost around $1.5 billion, it added.

The report also said Tata Motors had signed a confidentiality agreement with Ford in recent days.

While a bid is likely to prod other carmakers to get involved, a formal auction is sure to attract private equity firms as well, the report pointed out.