Top bidder for Jaguar, Land Rover is Indian

Tata Motors is expected to buy Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.

DETROIT (AP) — An Indian carmaker that will unveil the world’s cheapest car next week may soon produce two of the world’s premier brands as well.

Ford Motor Co. named Tata Motors Ltd. the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands Thursday and entered into “focused negotiations at a more detailed level,” meaning Tata was named preferred bidder for the storied British automakers.

“While no final decision has been made, we will proceed with further substantive discussions with Tata Motors over the forthcoming weeks,” Lewis Booth, executive vice president of Ford’s European units, said in a statement.

Jaguar and Land Rover employees in the United Kingdom were told about the negotiations Thursday morning shortly before the company made the announcement.

Ford executives have said they expect to sell the two British automakers early this year.

Ford spokesman Jay Ward in London would not say how much Tata bid for the automakers, nor would he say if two other bidders, Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and U.S. private equity firm One Equity Partners LLC, still were in the running. Last month people close to the negotiations with Ford told the AP that potential suitors had submitted bids for both companies that ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

A person briefed on the negotiations said Thursday that Mahindra and One Equity still were under consideration, although Tata is the likely buyer.

Tata plans to unveil its ultracheap $2,500 car next week at an auto show in New Delhi.

Company Chairman Ratan Tata said in a recent interview that acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover would help bring global visibility to his group — a sprawling conglomerate that makes everything from automobiles to steel and software, and a name that until recently was little-known outside India.

Tata Steel made headlines in January when it acquired Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group PLC for $12.1 billion by outbidding rivals. The deal, India’s biggest foreign acquisition, put Tata at the forefront of India’s global reach.

Though the Corus acquisition was widely seen as a good match — and appears to be paying off — many fail to see comparable synergies in Tata’s attempted takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover.

Tata long has been a giant in truck and bus manufacturing, but it has sold cars for only about a decade. It currently has about a 17 percent share of India’s market.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of Unite, Jaguar and Land Rover’s main labor union, said much still needs to be negotiated with Tata.