French OEM PSA, which owns Peugeot as well as the Citroen and Vauxhall marques, is reported to be considering purchasing Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) from its Indian owners Tata Motors, according to reports.
While PSA is known to be targeting the car manufacturer known for classically British vehicles such as the Jaguar F-Type and the Land Rover, Tata has denied the reports which also suggest a ‘post-sale integration document’ is in circulation.
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“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on media speculation, but we can confirm there is no truth to these rumours”, said a spokesperson for Tata.
Coventry-based carmaker JLR announced in January that it was to reduce its workforce by 10%, a total of 4,500 jobs. JLR has also opened a £1bn plant in Slovakia with more than 2,000 staff and that can build 150,000 cars a year.
The chairman of parent group Tata Sons, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, since his election as chief executive officer in 2009 has operated on a public mandate of streamlining the entire group and potentially offloading unprofitable companies.
In its most recent quarterly results, JLR revealed a £3.4bn pre-tax loss. The company has suffered from economic factors including a Chinese market undercut by copycat ‘Landwind’ versions of the Land Rover.
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By GlobalDataAlain Le Gouguec, a spokesman for PSA, said: “On principle we are open to opportunities that could create long-term value for PSA Group and its shareholders.”
While there had been some speculation that PSA would look to separate Jaguar from Land Rover in one report from CoventryLive, it was dismissed as unlikely due to the interconnection of the car manufacturing plants. JCB chairman Anthony Bamford expressed an interest in purchasing Jaguar Cars in 2006, but was informed this would necessitate the purchase of Land Rover also.
Last month JLR signed a deal with Faxi for the replacement of its private corporate carpooling platform that covers nine sites.
Faxi was chosen because of its platform’s ability to verify and incentivise carpooling and other sustainable activities, such as walking and cycling.
