AUGUST 8, 2006

Jaguar to be sold?

There are reports that the Ford Motor Company is trying to sell Jaguar and Land Rover as a package. The US car giant would probably seek to retain a minority shareholding in the company, suggesting that the plan is to find a financial group rather than another car company to buy the business. Thus if the company could be turned around and made successful Ford could reaquire the business at a later date. There have been talks with car companies seeking a luxury brand, notably Renault and Hyundai but for the moment no deal is done. The sale is interesting in F1 because Jaguar is a brand which would benefit from F1 exposure if there was a budget to go racing - as happened when Ford tried it a few years ago. Jaguar Racing was eventually sold to Red Bull and became Red Bull Racing.