| Ford weighs up rival offers for UK brands - The Financial Times |
| 30-10-2007 |
Ford Motor is weighing up
preliminary non-binding offers from Tata Motors and at least
four private equity groups for Jaguar and Land Rover after
Monday’s deadline. The Indian carmaker, alongside Cerberus
Capital Management, TPG, Terra Firma, and One Equity Partners,
is understood to have made offers for Ford’s two UK premium
brands. India’s Mahindra & Mahindra and buy-out group
Ripplewood Holdings also made indicative bids for Jaguar and
Land Rover in July, but it was not clear on Monday whether
they would make second-round offers. Financial terms of the
offers were not available on Monday, and none of the bidders
nor Ford are commenting on the sale. Ford, which says it wants
to sell the carmakers by the end of this year or the beginning
of 2008, is now expected to whittle the bidders down to a
shortlist in coming weeks. However, tougher credit markets
have altered the conditions for its auction of the brands, as
have signals of stricter carbon dioxide emissions standards
for cars coming from the European Union. Internal divisions
within Ford’s executive ranks over the brands’ future are also
complicating the sale, say people familiar with it.
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