Land Roveur! Will French bid for car firm?
JAGUAR Land Rover could be bought by the French after it racked up losses of £3.4billion between October and December, leaked documents say.
The luxury car maker, which employs 40,000 people in the UK, is in talks with Peugeot and Citroen owner Groupe PSA about a possible takeover.
A deal would raise fears of cuts to production in the UK and further job losses, which would be a major blow to the UK’s struggling car industry.
PSA, which already owns British car maker Vauxhall, is 14 per cent owned by the French government.
The sale process is at an advanced stage, it was reported, with a document that outlines the benefits of joining forces already doing the rounds at both companies. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was bought from Ford by Indian industrial conglomerate Tata for £1.1billion in 2008.
It made a lot of money in the early years, but has struggled more recently after the diesel emissions scandal was uncovered at Volkswagen in 2015 – which led to a worldwide fall in sales of diesel cars – and because of a fall in demand in China.
In January JLR – which also makes the Range Rover – confirmed that it would axe 4,500 jobs, with most coming from its UK workforce, on top of another 1,500 job cuts announced last year. And in February JLR posted the biggest quarterly loss in Indian corporate history – amounting to £3.4billion in the final three months of 2018 – as sales plunged in China and the firm wrote down the value of its plants and other investments by £3.1billion.
In late April JLR said it will build the next generation of Land Rover’s 4x4 Defender in Slovakia rather than Britain. The decision to build the iconic British car abroad was a bitter blow to many.
Last night Tata denied the reports. A spokesman said: ‘As a matter of policy, we do not comment on media speculation. But we can confirm there is no truth to these rumours.’
PSA said: ‘If an opportunity comes, like Opel-Vauxhall, we will consider it.’