Jaguar, Land Rover purchase finalised

Officials from the Ford Motor Company and Tata Motors were present for the official hand-over ceremony at Jaguar and Land Rover's UK headquarters in Gaydon yesterday.

Don Leclair, the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ford Motor Company, and Lewis Booth, Executive Vice President of Ford Motor Company were joined by the Chairman of Tata Motors, Ratan N. Tata, as Ford handed on the baton to Indian firm, Tata -- the company in the news at the moment for its '$2500 car', the Tata Nano (more here).

Tata has acquired the two British brands from former owner Ford at a cost of US $2.3 billion. As part of the deal, Ford has committed US $600 million to pension plans for employees of Jaguar and Land Rover.

Ford will continue to support the two companies with supplies of engines, stampings and other components, in addition to providing accounting, IT and test facility infrastructure.

David Smith, acting CEO for Jaguar and Land Rover, will now assume that responsibility on a permanent basis under Tata. Smith had taken the reins of the company following the demise of ex-pat Aussie and former Ford Australia President, Geoff Polites (more here). Smith is a 25-year veteran of Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover, and has been CFO for Jaguar Land Rover and Director of Finance and Business Strategy for Ford Europe and Ford's Premium Automotive Group (PAG).

"We are very pleased with the association with Tata Motors," Smith said. "We look forward to a sustained bright future for the company and its stakeholders."

The change of ownership occurs just as Jaguar is starting to gain sales momentum from the new XF model (more here) and Land Rover is enjoying greater sales success with the Freelander 2 (more here).

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