The Tatas are not alone in the race to take over British car makers Land Rover and Jaguar. Apart from the Tatas, three private equity funds and two other trading companies are expected to join the race for the British luxury car makers.
Reports say the private equity funds, led by Cerberus Capital Management, which took over US car major Chrysler last May, Ripplewood Holdings and One Equity Partners are among the funds interested in taking over the companies from the struggling US car major, Ford.
The Tatas, which had successfully acquired British steel firm Corus after a bidding war in February this year, are considered as a serious contender. Of the six, Ford plans to shortlist two bidders in the next two weeks so that they can start their due diligence immediately.
Apart from the three equity funds, the trading companies are interested in buying only one of the brands. Interestingly, private equity firm One Equity Partners is led by Jacques A Nasser, a former Ford chief executive.
Ford plans to sell off the companies as sales at loss-making Jaguar dropped 21 per cent from January to June compared with the same period in the previous year. On the other hand, Land Rover's sales were flat in that period. The two together sell only 3,00,000 cars annually.
The worker unions, meanwhile, are alarmed over the private equities' planned bids as the funds are known for asset stripping and closing down plants.
On Monday, Unite, Britain's biggest union, sought close involvement in the sale process. "The last thing that you should consider is an auction, in which the highest bidder wins, irrespective of the consequences," said Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, in a letter to Lewis Booth, the head of Ford Europe.
Unite wants Ford to maintain a significant stake in the companies and insists that the current production and development operations are kept in place.
Ford Motors plunged into the red last year and lost its position as the second-biggest car company in the US, in terms of sales, to Japanese car major Toyota.
