Now we’ve heard them all; if BMW’s alleged interest in Volvo raised an eyebrow or two what would you say if we Fiat Group was dead serious in buying Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford Motor Company? Citing sources familiar with the matter, Automotive News is reporting that Ford's talks with Fiat started in February and ended in late May. They involved Fiat group CEO Sergio Marchionne and Ford of Europe boss Lewis Booth, who also heads Premier Automotive Group. -Continued: Click “Read More…” below
While neither company confirmed the talks Ford spokesman John Gardiner told AN, "Ford Motor Company is continuing to assess a number of strategic options for all of its operations. We're not specifying what they are and what we're evaluating." In other words, you got the dough; we’ve got the will to sell.
Wondering why the hell would Fiat risk buying a sinking ship -aka, Jaguar, and the so and so Land Rover -especially since the Italian carmaker is just recovering? Well, while Fiat must have only been interested in Land Rover, Ford seriously want’s to get rid of Jaguar since its been loosing $500 million to $1 billion a year since 2001, and the only way to achieve that is to sell Jaguar with the more prosperous Land Rover. Back to Fiat, the Italians seem to have wanted Land Rover mainly for two reasons: increased global SUV/Crossover sales and Land Rover's U.S. dealership network that would seriously help Alfa Romeo’s US relaunch in 2009. "Land Rover is a brand many carmakers would love to add to their portfolios - particularly Fiat group, whose five brands are still almost nonexistent in the growing global SUV market," a
So what happened in the end and Fiat bailed out of the talks? According to AN sources, the Italian carmaker halted discussions with Ford because of concern over the potential adverse effect of the acquisition on the Italian carmaker's credit rating.
Source: Automotive News
Technorati: Fiat, Jaguar, Ford, Land+Rover, Carscoop, cars, autos, vehicles
