Indian utility vehicles and car manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra is vying to acquire Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands because it wants access to Land Rovers’ vast technological assets, a local newspaper said on Tuesday.
The Business Standard noted that both brands were on sale due to a lack of sales, primarily at ailing Jaguar. Ford deflected interest in Land Rover alone and insisted on selling both brands as a ‘joint package’, the paper added.
Mahindra and Mahindra executive director Hemant Luthra told the Business Standard: “Work is in process. Anand (Mahindra) and [M&M automotive sector president] Pawan Goenka are looking at options.”
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The paper said Mahindra would benefit directly from the technological advancements made by Land Rover, funded by Ford over the years.
Access to Land Rover technology has driven M&M to enter the race for both the brands. “The technology that Land Rover has makes sense for M&M,” Luthra reportedly added.
The Business Standard said the M&M bid for the iconic brands is in line with the company’s ambition of becoming a full-fledged utility vehicle player worldwide, with a variety of product offerings.
In an earlier interview with the Business Standard, M&M automotive’s Goenka said: “We want to promote the M&M brand as a utility vehicle maker worldwide and we are working in line with that.”
Luthra also said that, by 2010, the automotive division would go for an acquisition strategy, the newspaper noted.
The Business Standard added that the automaker wants to pursue aggressively its North American plan, as the US remains the largest market for all types of utility vehicle, including pick-up trucks, and M&M already plans to launch the Scorpio there.
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By GlobalDataThe Business Standard noted that most acquisitions made by the company have been through direct equity buy-out of the target company rather than bidding at auction but the company may change its business model for JLR as Luthra said: “One cannot say that we would never change our model of growth. If the best deal has to come through auction, we will go for it.”
