Ford Motor Co. is selling Jaguar and Land Rover, which have their U.S. headquarters in Irvine, to India’s Tata Motors Ltd. for $2.3 billion.
The automaker is set to get $1.7 billion of the sale price, or about a third of what Ford paid for the two luxury British brands.
Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion in 1989 and Land Rover for $2.7 billion in 2000.
When the deal closes, Ford is set to pay about $600 million into the Jaguar-Land Rover pension fund, according to a statement from Tata.
A deal has been in the works for months. Ford said in November it wanted to sell Jaguar and Land Rover by early this year to cut debt and to rid itself of the poor-performing brands.
Tata said it expects no significant changes in the terms of employment for Jaguar and Land Rover’s 16,000 workers. It said the transfer of the brands would take place at the end of the second quarter.
Jaguar and Land Rover are part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, which has about 375 workers in Irvine and yearly sales of about $160 billion.
A year ago, Ford sold a majority stake in Premier Automotive Group’s Aston Martin for $848 million.
Volvo, the strongest part of Premier Automotive Group, is moving its U.S. headquarters from Irvine to New Jersey.
The Swedish automaker moved to Irvine in 2001 when Ford’s Premier Automotive Group of European brands consolidated here.
