Land Rover / Jaguar: The Return of Mahindra

Indian carmaker Mahindra has teamed up with private-equity group Apollo to field a bid for Ford's premium carmakers. Up until recently, Mahindra was thought to have backed away from making a play for the marques leaving fellow Indian carmaker Tata the top candidate.

Ford has several concerns that it wants addressed by any potential buyer. Firstly, Ford wants to make sure that it's intellectual property is protected so that its technology doesn't come back to compete against it. Secondly, Ford wants to continue to do business with Jaguar and Land Rover including supplying powertrains. This would mean that Ford would probably want to maintain a minority stake in the venture.

In a quote from London's Sunday Times, one advisor involved in the talks said “I’m not sure who the new owner of Jaguar and Land Rover will be, but I’m pretty sure it will be an Indian company."

Source: TimesOnline