Item Up For Bid - Jaguar, Land Rover Bidding Ends Today

Today is the last day that Ford will accept first bids for their Jaguar-Land Rover luxury duo. Who is rumoured to be in the mix? For starters, you have the usual private equity suspects like Ripplewood, One Equity and newly minted Chrysler owner Cerberus. In addition to private equity we also have Hyundai mulling a potential bid, which seems like an odd fit.

In all, Ford is expecting to receive as many as 6 bids and when the dust settles, we could see a sale price in the $8 billion range. Considering Ford ponied up $2.9 billion in 1990, that would appear on the surface to be a decent return. Or does it? You have to take into account that Jaguar is losing upwards of a $1 billion annually before you can fully grasp both the motive for a sale on Ford's part, and the lacklustre overall return on the 1990 transaction. Nissan and Renault were also considering a bid, but recently decided to back off. A dark-horse in the bidding race could be India's Tata Motors. They are apparently very interested, and such a deal would undoubtedly go down as one of the biggest overseas takeovers in India's history if they manage to pull it off. The only question that will remain once the bidding is over - did the winning bidder 'win' or 'lose'? Time will tell whether Jaguar's red ink can change its colour.

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Item Up For Bid - Jaguar, Land Rover Bidding Ends Today

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