Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to wrap up the 600-million ($850 million) three-year Chinese deal it had bagged in February 2009, one year ahead of schedule.
Smith's financial acumen steered the troubled car maker through its toughest times in the recent past.
The challenges of transition to stricter emission norm BS-VI from BS-IV and compliance to new safety norms thereby making vehicles costlier are lurking around the sector.
Dismissing adverse comments on Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) buy, Ratan Tata on Tuesday said the $2.3-billion acquisition of the iconic brands was 'worthwhile' though the subsequent financial crisis posed challenges.
The exercise part of drive to combine operations under single firm.
The package consists of a three-year committed facility to finance Land Rover's parts and accessories' inventories and receivables in the UK and the US. This is an important element of JLR's working capital financing to cover the key Land Rover parts and accessories' inventories and receivables part of our business, which has a high cash requirement, to function properly.
It said total passenger vehicles sales were 45,380 units, in January 2010, a growth of 76 per cent from the corresponding month last year.
'Searching for the target with bare eyes was like searching for the needle in the haystack, but due to the technology, we had a clear picture of the seven tents perched against the rocky background on our scopes.'
A man has been arrested for trying to extinguish the Olympic torch by throwing a bucket of water over it as it passed through his farming town of Maracaju in central Brazil, an officer at the local police station said on Monday.
Tata Motors on Friday reported an 84 per cent jump in its global sales at 74,707 units for December 2008, compared to the corresponding month in 2008. The company also posted 137 per cent surge in the sale of its commercial vehicles at 37,326 units in December 2009, it said in a statement. During the month under review, it sold 16,247 units of passenger vehicles, up by 53 per cent, against the same month previous year, it added.
The new business plan is designed to increase its global competitiveness, drive growth and sustain profitability and respond to the challenges of climate change, the company said.
When launched later this year, the Volvo will lock horns with the BMW 5-series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Jaguar XF and the Audi A6
The Indian Air Force's on Friday conducted day-night demonstration of its combat and fire power in Pokhran, which was witnessed by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Fraught four-month-long negotiation between Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover and the United Kingdom government over a loan guarantee ended in an anti-climax on Tuesday, with the Mumbai-headquartered automobile maker announcing that it has secured loans from commercial banks and would not need any support from the UK government.
The board of the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank on Tuesday approved a pound 340 million (Rs 2,500 crore) loan to the Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover to support efforts to make low-emission cars.
Tata Motors has roped in international consultants Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (based in Munich) and KPMG to help its British car brands Jaguar-Land Rover trim costs and help manage cash flow.
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd plans to invest more than Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in the next 10 years on the back of a strong order pipeline and big ticket projects on the horizon.
The ban does not speak about used luxury cars.
Dr Ravi Prakash's 250 vintage car collection includes J R D Tata's 1940 Buick Limousine and a Sunbeam-Talbot used by Lord Mountbatten.
In an interview published in the Sunday Times on Sunday, Ratan Tata admitted with hindsight that he might have gone too far too fast, but that nobody saw the economic recession coming.
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker, is in the process of raising Rs 5,000 crore through a bond issue to refinance the remaining $ 2 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) bridge loan it took to acquire Jaguar and Land Rover.
Continued adverse global automotive market conditions have resulted in a overall reduction in Jaguar Land Rover volumes during the quarter.
The defence ministry has put on hold all existing and future deals with Rolls Royce pending a CBI probe ordered into allegations of bribery and engaging middlemen in contracts worth Rs 10,000 crore for supply of aircraft engines to state-owned HAL.
With the Rafale contract in limbo, the upgrade of IAF's Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fighters has become vitally important.
The Indian Air Force on Thursday put up a scintillating display as part of its 83rd anniversary celebrations.
Jaguar and Land Rover, the UK based carmakers, are to set up dealership networks in India soon as they seek to use ties with Tata Motors, their new owner, to find new markets.
The auto major had posted a profit of Rs 3,945.47 crore (Rs 39.45 billion) in the same period a year earlier.
After months of negotiations, Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover is likely to get approval for a loan of pound 270 million (about Rs 2,000 crore) from the European Investment Bank on April 7, BBC reported on Saturday quoting official sources.
The two iconic brands are also developing hybrid engines for use in future models of JLR. Two British marquee had made a loss of over Rs 1,777.35 crore or Rs 17.77 billion (before interest, exceptional items and tax) in 2008-09 due to global meltdown, while the income from JLR sales stood at Rs 39,270.70 crore (Rs 392.7 billion). It had laid off over 2,200 staff.
Tata Motors has sold one Jaguar and Land Rover model a day since it launched the marque brands in India just under a month ago -- on June 28. But that's enough to satisfy the company and has, in fact, come as a surprise to many market experts.
In a statement correcting media stories that appeared on Sunday suggesting its plants would be shut for longer, a company spokersperson said, "The reality is that our annual summer shutdown begins at the end of next week (July 23) as scheduled and will last for two weeks, with the plants due to restart on August 10. This two-week break is actually a week shorter than the traditional three-week break our plants have previously had."
A JLR spokesperson said this offer will apply to nearly 6,000 of its 14,500 employees who are categorised as salaried employees. The rest of the workers are paid weekly. He further said 25 per cent of those to whom this offer was made have already accepted it.
Indian high commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee has asked the British companies, based in Birmingham and other towns in the West Midlands, to expand and avail of opportunities offered by India.
JLR sees job cut if the situation does not improve.
Air Marshal N A K Browne, a veteran fighter pilot, took over the charge of Western Air Command, the sword arm of the Indian Air Force on Monday.
Tata Motors, which is announcing its results January 30, is likely to end 2008-09 with around Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) less cash mainly because sales of commercial vehicles, which account for about 60 per cent of its revenues, have dropped sharply.
Former Ferrari technical director and world championship-winning team principal Ross Brawn stepped back into the Formula One arena on Monday in the new role of managing director for motorsport.
The India foray of the two brands, which debuted in 1922 and 1948, respectively, has been hastened by their new Indian owner, Tata Motors, which took over in 2008 from Ford Motor Company of the US. The spokesperson said Tata Motors would be the distributor of these brands in India.
In yet another major Indian takeover, Religare, a financial services company owned by prominent businessmen Malvinder and Shivinder Singh bought London's oldest stockbroker, Hichens, Harrison & Co on Friday. The deal is seen as another example of India's growing economic clout overseas. Two weeks ago, Tata Motors bought the prestigious Jaguar and Land rover models from Ford.
Top Indian businessmen are increasingly making investments abroad. They are eyeing acquisitions abroad for a number of reasons including global reach and international market penetration. But the Indian business environment is also a chief cause. Many businessmen regard Indian biz scene stifling & not open enough for free growth. The likes of Vijay Mallya and the Ruias have therefore become technically become non-resident Indians even while they run large businesses in India.