Tata Motors and Ford, the owner of the iconic Jaguar and Land Rover brands, are expected to announce the final deal as early as tomorrow, according to sources.
<b1>“The interesting part of the deal is that Ford’s existing relationship with Jaguar and Land Rover will continue.
Ford will supply parts and accessories to the two brands,” said a source close to the negotiations.
The two managements have had conference calls last week. The talks are expected to resume once the long Easter weekend is over on Tuesday morning. In the meanwhile, the Tatas are in talks with investment bankers for arranging of finance options, including raising funds from sources in India and abroad.
State Bank of India, lead managers for Tata Motors, will raise $3 billion (Rs 11,962.5 crore) to fund the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover. The deal comes as a shot in the arm for the country’s largest bank, which was not significantly involved in the earlier Tata-Corus deal.
Citibank, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Financial Group are the other banks that will pool resources.
The Tata group wants the acquisition corpus to be ready by April 10, according to earlier reports.
Negotiations on the deal have been on for the last year, since Ford announced in 2006 that the car marques would be sold. The name of Tata Motors as a probable suitor emerged in 2007.