Will the Indian auto giant manage to take Jaguar and Land Rover off Ford's hands?
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker, has postponed plans for an overseas equity issue and sale of investments to repay the $3 billion bridge loan it took in June last year to acquire the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford.
A year after the Tata group took over the two of Britain's most iconic automobile brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, it is faced with newer and bigger challenges than it would have expected when it paid $2.3 billion to Ford for the acquisitions on March 26, 2008.
Kant, an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, was managing director of the company before being promoted as vice-chairman five years ago.
With the US economy in a downturn, it could be a while before the Jaguar and Land Rover business turns around. For the first half of 2008, JLR has posted losses of $383 million on sales of $ 7.07 billion, a disclosure that saw the Tata Motors stock fall 5 per cent on September 23.
After a string of foreign deals in the last few years, including Tata Motors' purchase of Land Rover and Jaguar brands from Ford for $2.3 billion this year, attempts by Indian companies to acquire assets abroad are increasingly hitting roadblocks. At least, the recent attempts by Indian companies suggest so.
The Argentinian becomes the first brand ambassador of the company in its 70-year history.
Tata Motors made waves when it bought the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Test your knowledge about the erstwhile owner of these brands -- Henry Ford.
Tata Motors has succeeded in securing a $3bn banking facility for its purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor, which should clear the way for the deal to close next week. Tata's ability to raise the money in spite of the turmoil on debt markets represents a vote of confidence in the Indian company and removes one of the last main obstacles to the deal.
"The toughest part was continuing to believe that we could do it," Tata told journalists covering the Auto Expo in New Delhi, where he unveiled the lowest-priced car in the world. He added that "a promise is a promise", hinting at the ability of his company to deliver even in the face of brutal scepticism.
India's corporate honchos spent a considerable time and energy this year at deal tables and executed over thousand transactions involving sale or purchase of equity stakes in their companies. On an average, every single day of 2007 saw about three deals being announced. This included a total of 1,047 merger and acquisitions as well as private equity deals for a total value of $68.32 billion (about Rs 2,75,000 crore).
After a brief lull during the pandemic, there is a strong revival in luxury car sales, bolstered by more launches across price bands, replacement demand, ban on old diesel vehicles in the NCR, and 'revenge buying'.
India's largest automotive group said it had received 203,000 pre-paid orders worth Rs25bn ($507m) for the Nano, the world's cheapest car, which it put on sale for a 16-day booking period which ended on April 25.
'Hello Namaste' has been described as a "festive upbeat Hinglish" number which highlights the UK-India friendship.
Automakers are caught in a chicken-and-egg situation: Prices have to come down if volumes are to increase, and volumes won't increase unless prices come down, notes Pavan Lall.
Tata Motors has halved the volume outlook for its UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover Automotive (JLR) and warned of lower earnings as it sees the semiconductor shortage deepening in the September quarter of the current financial year, according to a notification issued by the company to the stock exchanges on Tuesday. The announcement caught investors unawares. They were hoping for a quicker recovery. Tata Motors' stock tanked 13 per cent (on July 6) from the day's high of Rs 358.10 and hit the lower circuit (Rs 311.45) in intra-day trades.
Sensex ends in green on boost from bluechip stocks.
The plan was to sell off non-profitable businesses apart from focusing on four verticals: real estate, defence, financial services and retail
'Interim Budget has ignited the entrepreneurial spirit.'
Audi's 2015 sales were three per cent higher than its 2014 sales, which stood at 10,851 units.
Has a smaller engine taken away the reasons to love the F-Type or given us brand new one? Read on to find out
JLR volumes could hit million units by 2019, stock trading at discount to other premium automakers
In the domestic market, the Tata Group has lost ground in the passenger car business.
Chinese blast has Tata Motors reporting Rs 430 cr net loss.
From powering mobile devices, US chip designer Qualcomm has tied up with Ola Electric to power its electric scooters. Qualcomm is providing the key 4G connected octa core android platform which provides connectivity, computing capabilities and enables rich immersive displays with power saving software.
It has get-up-and-go and is possessed of immense agility, observes Pavan Lall.
Tata Motors is seeking an image makeover with the curvaceous hatchback, Zica.
Tata Motors group's investment for this fiscal is pegged at Rs 28,900 crore, mostly for its British arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), company chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Friday. The company will also look to raise capital separately for its electric vehicles (EV) business at an appropriate time. It is looking to have 25 per cent of its sales coming from EVs in the medium to long term, up from 2 per cent at present, he said while addressing the company's virtual AGM.
The UK's 697 projects created a 1.4 per cent rise in foreign direct investment jobs to 30,311.
RatanTata is the only Indian among five foreigners to be awarded Britian's civilian honour this year.
Other losers included Vedanta, Tata Steel, NTPC, ONGC, L&T, M&M, Coal India, Maruti, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, ITC and HDFC, dropping up to 5.75 per cent. On the other hand, Kotak Bank, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance and Hero MotoCorp rose up to 0.95 per cent.
JLR, Tata Steel Europe CEOs caution staff on high risks of leaving the EU
'Favourable product mix, sales recovery, and cost saving initiatives are expected to support margins going ahead while focus on debt reduction (target of debt free by FY24) will aid balance sheet strength'
However, any progress on the deal depends upon Goyal giving up control of the company.
There's a car and bike to match every personality and every budget in 2018, say P Tharyan and Joshua David Luther
From high-performance cars and customised bikes to accessories and in-car entertainment technology, the Autocar Performance Show 2014 held in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex turned out to be paradise for car lovers.
The likes of Microsoft and Cohesity have offered crore plus salaries to some students.
Vision 2025 to focus on four clusters; aim is to join the global club of top 25 companies.
The group, however, measured the economic value of just 43 creative ideas out of 1,700 innovations that took place within the Group last year.
Higher input cost is likely to weigh on Auto sector's Q4 numbers.
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