Ford Plan To Sell Land Rover And Jaguar

Car manufacturer Ford today reported that they are planning to sell both Land Rover and Jaguar by the beginning of next year, in order to release capital and streamline their business model.

Ford’s attempts to retail the two UK based brands are part of their continuous struggle to improve their company’s efficiency and increase profits in the US, amidst stiff competition from Japanese imports. In recent months, Ford had been experiencing a dramatic drop in sales as companies like Nissan and Toyota dominated the market despite the devaluation of the dollar over recent months.

However, Ford have stated that their losses for the third quarter of this year are $380m, an improvement from the reported losses of over $5.2bn over the course of last year, reflecting that the company may well be gaining some ground.

To regain costs they have also cut over 6,800 jobs over the last quarter in the U.S, which has resulted in savings across its labour cost centres.

Part of their plans to streamline their operations is to reassess the potential of Swedish brand Volvo, having recently successfully sold their Aston Martin brand.

However, due to the recent credit crunch environment, the instability of the stock market has affected any chance of a further sale of assets. The U.S has seen dramatic reduction in the level of takeover activity generally over the last few months, making for a more hostile environment for groups looking to offload subsidiaries.

Now that banks are more reluctant to facilitate lending, those interested in the sale of Land Rover and Jaguar are finding it increasingly difficult to gain access the money they would require.

But Ford has expressed that it has researched the prospective sale of the two companies combined and arrangements are nearing completion.

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