Tata Either Gets Headache or Bargain
It is finally a done deal, Jaguar/Landrover (JLR) has been sold to Tata Group or more correctly to Ratan Tata, the leader of this conglomerate.
I have stated before that I think that this is a good deal for JLR. It gets to be finally owned by a deep pocketed patriarch that cannot afford to fail, and it’s balance sheet will come out of this clean from several years of restructuring at Ford’s expense.
The issue is not so much Landrover as Jaguar that is the wildcard here:
Lord Bhattacharyya, who is head of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick and who knows both JLR and Mr Tata well, is in no doubt. “How often do two such icons come up for sale at the same time? Land Rover is now sustainably profitable and you are about to see a renaissance of Jaguar,†he says. “But what you really have to look at is the timing.â€
Tata has got a newly funded pension plan and a commitment to both standard and hybrid powertrains for the future. Couple this with JLR not being under the corporate ethos for volume from Ford, they can return to premium products with premium prices.
Finally India is going to need an awful lot of new premium vehicles and SUVs in the future as the middle class expands. There is a certain amount of pride to purchasing an Indian/British vehicle No?
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