Ford’s Land Rover and Jaguar received More Bids

A few weeks ago, Ford was reported to have put out in the market two of its subsidiary brands under Premiere Automotive Group (PAG). But the rumors that Jaguar and Land Rover which are the two brands on on sale is possible to happen according to the spokesman of the British car maker. The Ford Motor Company made a soft deadline last Thursday for interested bidders to submit their interests but the decision will be announced months from now.

John Gardiner, the Ford spokesman in London, said, "We've had contacts from third parties, and we're actively evaluating them as part of our strategic review. They've only been preliminary discussions, and no decisions have been made." Gardiner did not mention anything with regards to how many bids they have already received.

The American car maker had lost a huge amount of $12.7 billion in 2006 and on this year’s first quarter, they noted a $282 million loss as well. They have undergone several job cuts and closed facilities to pursue their business.

Last year, the company mortgaged their company to a cost of $23.4 billion to pursue the reconstructions of some of their facilities as well as to cover up some of their losses to continue their operations. They are expected to spend up to $17 billion before they can become profitable next year.

Some analyst studied the situation of Ford and they say that the company had to burn more millions of dollars to raise funds in order to continue selling their British brands.

One of its PAG members, Aston Martin, was sold to private companies last March for $848 million and now, it is still said that the company is open for options including the partial sales of another PAG member, Volvo.

The company did not identify the officials who revealed the news because the bidding was confidential. But they announced that only the bids for Jaguar and Land Rover were entertained. The bids for Volvo were ignored.

Jaguar was sold to Ford last 1989 and Land Rover became a part of the company in 2000. Together with Volvo and Aston Martin, these four brands formed the Premier Automotive Group.

Jaguar was noted to have a continuous loss over the past months starting last year until this very day. This is perhaps the reason why Ford has decided to sell the PAG member according to Paul Newton, an Global Insight automotive analyst of a research firm in London. Newton added, "I don't think anybody's going to bid cold, hard cash for Jaguar."