Ford Craves for Total Sale of Land Rover and Jaguar

Ford Motor Company recently asserted that it wants a total sale of its Land Rover and Jaguar units. The world renowned automotive company also declared at the Frankfurt International Motor Show that though a total deal is what it wants, it is still too early to decide on whether it will maintain a stake in its two premier brands.

According to Vice President of Ford Motor Company’s European arm Lewis Booth, the interest in selling Land Rover and Jaguar came out from the need to support Ford’ s financial and structural revamp. “We’re selling the business because we need the money and we need the focus.”

Ford is expecting to sell Jaguar and Land Rover by the first few months of next year, if not the end of this year. This venture is expected to boost the sales of the company, which actually dropped 12.6 billion dollars in 2006.

According to analysts, the two units can bring Ford an estimated amount of 1.5 billion dollars. In view of that, though Ford is still likely to lose about 15 billion dollars, the sale of the two brands is deemed to help in bringing back the company’s profitability by 2009.

Several individuals and companies have already raised interest on the two Ford brands. One of these is Former Ford President Nick Scheele, who tied up last month with New York-based Ripplewood Holdings in a business offer for Land Over and Jaguar. Another bid is being led by Former Ford Chief Executive Jacques Nasse, who represents the JPMorgan Chase associate One Equity Partners. Moreover, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata expressed last month his company’ s interest in the two Ford brands.