A sale of Ford Motor Co.’s Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands to India’s Tata Motors Ltd. could come as early as next week, according to reports.
Ford Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair said the company doesn’t plan to keep a stake in the brands, a change from initial talks about keeping a minority ownership.
Published reports said Ford could keep selling engines and technology to Tata once the company sale is complete.
Tata beat out Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and U.S. private equity firm One Equity Partners LLC to become the lead bidder in early January, according to reports.
Jaguar and Land Rover are expected to sell for about $3 billion in the first quarter.
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.
It’s unclear what the sale will mean for the Irvine operation.
Jaguar and Land Rover are part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, which has about 500 workers in Irvine and yearly sales of about $160 billion.
In March, Ford sold a majority stake in Premier Automotive Group’s Aston Martin for $848 million.
Volvo, the strongest part of Premier Automotive Group, has been the subject of sale rumors. But there’s been no confirmation from Ford that the Swedish brand is up for sale.
