Industry hails Tata Motors' JLR acquisition

27 March 2008

Industrialists Ananad Mahindra of M&M, Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Videocon chief Venugopal Dhoot are among the business leaders who, along with industry bodies FICCI, CII and Assocham, have hailed Tata Motors' acquisition of iconic British brands Jaguar and Land Rover.

Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of Tata Motors' rival M&M, which had also proposed a competing bid along with private equity firm One Equity Partners for Jaguar and Land Rover, said, the acquisition of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands would make the world sit up and take notice of India's growing prominence in the global automotive arena. ''I wish Tatas every success for the future." 

Echoing similar sentiments, Rahul Bajaj, chairman of two-wheeler giant Bajaj Auto, said  he wasdelighted, not only as an industrialist and a person from automotive industry but also as an Indian, that Tata Motors had got the deal.

"I hold Ratan Tata and Ravi Kant in very high regard,'' Bajaj said adding time would tell how things move and there was no reason to believe that they would not succeed. ''There are lots of things like R&D, brand name, dealership and network which Tata Motors would learn from JLR and it could be vice-versa also," Bajaj added.

Venugopal Dhoot, chairman, Videocon Industries and president, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Asocham), said that Indian industry had been doing an extremely good job in acquiring foreign assets ''but the way the Tatas have done it makes India proud''.

Complimenting the Tata Group for its global acqwuisitions of the prominence of Corus Steel for $12.1 billion in 2007 and Jaguar Land Rover this week, Assocham said in a statement, "This is a major landmark for Indian industry and a turning point in achieving quality and projecting brand - as the Jaguar and Rover represent some of the highest brand values.".