Ford to Tata Motors: Let's talk!

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Ford to Tata Motors: Let's talk!

In an official statement Ford officials said they are committed to focused negotiations at a detailed level with Tata Motors concerning the potential sale of the combined Jaguar, Land Rover business. Ford clarified that Tata is not officially the "preferred bidder", but that it will spend the next few weeks securing an agreement with the Tatas.

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Ford has said that it will hold talks with the Tatas for the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover , reports CNBC-TV18. This story goes back six months. On June 11, Ford announced its decision to sell off its British marque brands - Jaguar and Land Rover. On the July 17 the Tatas go public with their interest in the two marquee brands.In an interview to CNBC-TV18 on the August 24, Ratan Tata confirmed interest in Jaguar and Land Rover for first time. The  workers union approved Tata as its choice for new owner on November 20. Finally yesterday, Ford said they will focus on detailed talks with the Tatas.

In a statement Ford said, "Ford is committed to focused negotiations at a more detailed level with Tata Motors concerning the potential sale of the combined Jaguar, Land Rover business."

Ford has clarified that Tata is not officially the "preferred bidder", but that it will spend the next few weeks securing an agreement with the Tatas.

John Gardiner , Manager - PAG, Ford said, "We haven't actually stated that Tata Motors is the preferred bidder. What we've actually said is that Ford is committed to focussed negotiations at a more detailed level with Tata Motors concerning the potential sale of the combined JLR business. In terms of timing, there is still a considerable amount of work still to do. We haven't made any final decisions at this stage, we will proceed with further discussions with Tata Motors over the coming weeks with a view to securing an agreement. Ford has consistently said, we always anticipated or hoped to anticipate an agreement in early 2008, and that timing still stands."

Within minutes, Tata Motors responded with an official statement saying, "We have said for some time that we are interested in the Jaguar Land Rover business. We can confirm that we have had positive discussions so far with Ford concerning the possible purchase of Jaguar Land Rover and we are now entering a period of more focused and detailed negotiations with Ford. We hope both parties can reach an agreement in the forthcoming weeks, though these are complex discussions and there is still much work that needs to be done before that position is reached. We are pleased by the progress in the discussions to date and very positive about the prospects of this business going forward. There is nothing further we want to add at this time."

In fact, the Ford union is also keen about meeting the Tatas. Their key concerns include commitments on pensions, job security and ensuring that all plants survive the takeover

Roger Madison , National Secretary, Unite said, "We will want to meet with Tata as well because we will want to make sure that we've got agreements in place. Commitments on pensions, job security and make sure that all plants survive a takeover from Tata.  We'll want to make sure that Tatas are prepared to continue to fund pensions into the long term future in the same way that Ford has always done. We're not asking for anything that people haven't already got. We are not asking for anything that isn't a norm in the car industry here in the UK."