The competition to win control of two of the most renowned names in Britain’s motor industry is cranking up a gear this week.
Ford Motor has set a deadline of this Friday for second round bids to purchase Jaguar, the luxury marque used to ferry British government ministers to meetings. Land Rover, whose vehicles are used by the British army in Iraq, as well as by civilians for off-road expeditions to Waitrose and baby-yoga classes, is also bundled in the deal.
First round bids were due on Monday, and there are believed to be at least five bidders who will submit bids by Friday. Four of them are private equity groups, including Cerberus Capital Management, TPG, Terra Firma, and One Equity Partners. The fifth is India’s Tata Motors.
But Reuters’s Deal Zone blog wonders whether there is a sixth mystery bidder:
Purely speculatively, we’re wondering if some of those named as interested in buying Chrysler when that automaker was up for sale would also be interested — such as Canada’s Magna.
It was Magna, of course, who tried to put together a bid for Chrysler with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. But past reports of Magna’s interest in Ford assets have concentrated on Land Rover rather than Jaguar.
For Ford, this is another step in its slow dismembering, aimed at returning the car maker to its core brand. Earlier this year, it sold a minority stake in Aston Martin to a Kuwaiti-backed consortium. Ford is hoping to complete the sale by the beginning of next year.