Chairman of India's Tata Group confirms interest in buying Ford's Jaguar, Land Rover units

NEW DELHI(AP) _ The chairman of India's Tata Group has confirmed his company's interest in acquiring the Jaguar and Land Rover units of Ford Motor Co.

``We certainly have an interest in that,'' Chairman Ratan Tata told the CNN-IBN television channel in an interview, excerpts of which were telecast Friday.

The company had previously refused comment on the speculation in the Indian media about a possible Tata bid for the Ford assets.

Tata said the interest in Jaguar and Land Rover is driven by a desire to expand Tata Motors' global reach and reduce its dependance on the Indian market, that currently accounts for more than 90 per cent of its sales.

``It is to give ourselves scale, to give ourselves global reach,'' Tata said, but declined to comment further.

The Tata Group, with interests ranging from automobiles to steel and software, is the most aggressive among Indian companies seeking overseas acquisitions to gain global visibility after thriving for decades in a protected home market.

Earlier this year, Tata Steel won a US$12 billion bid to acquire Britain-based Corus Steel, an acquisition that would make the Indian company the world's fifth-largest steel maker.

Through acquisitions, Indian companies hope to penetrate new markets, acquire technologies and gain access to raw materials needed for industrialization back home.

Cash-strapped Ford, which lost US$12.7 billion loss in 2006, has

Been looking to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover units. The company

Has taken opening bids and Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said

In late July that the probability of selling the brands is greater

than 50 per cent.

In its bid for Jaguar and Land Rover, Tata would be pitted

Against two former Ford executives who have reportedly tied up

private equity firms to make separate bids for the same assets.

Sir Nick Scheele, who served as Ford's president between 2001 and 2005, has reportedly joined New York-based Ripplewood Holdings LLC to bid for the luxury brands.

The other bid has reportedly come from Jacques Nasser, who was Ford's chief executive from 1999 to 2001 and has tied up with One Equity Partners LLC that private equity investments for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Ford, DCX reach deal to let German automaker use Daimler name

FRANKFURT, ¿Germany (AP) _ What's in a name? For German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG, it's a lot of history and a brand identity nurtured carefully for the greater part of a century.

When it moved to sell its money-losing Chrysler Group and unwind the $36 billion takeover that created the company in 1998, it fought to hold on to the Daimler name _ closely associated with Germany's automotive pioneer.

On Thursday the Stuttgart-based automaker confirmed that it would, with the permission of Ford Motor Co.

The tangled process of dubbing the truncated German carmaker Daimler AG required the co-operation of the American carmaker as well as the British premium automaker Jaguar, which Ford acquired nearly 20 years ago.

Jaguar acquired the rights to the Daimler name nearly half a century ago, when it bought Britain's Daimler Motor Co. The latter had bought a license to build the engine developed by Gottleib Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach so it could build cars in Britain late in the 19th century.

The British Daimler Motor Co. Later was brought into the BSA Group and that company, in turn, became part of Jaguar Cars Ltd. In 1960. Jaguar was the acquired by Ford, in 1989.

Don Hume, a spokesman for Ford's Premier Auto Group, said the two sides agreed that DaimlerChrysler can use Daimler for trade and corporate purposes, but not as a car brand.

``You won't see a Daimler-badged Mercedes,'' he said, adding that the Daimler name is used on vehicles only by the high-end Jaguar XJ series.

The last German car to bear the Daimler brand was produced in the early 20th century. Daimler-Benz AG, like its predecessor, DaimlerChrysler, has produced its cars under the Mercedes-Benz tag since just after 1900.

DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Marina Raptis told The Associated Press that ``There is no disagreement with Ford regarding the use of the name Daimler.''

The deal was finalized in mid-May, before DaimlerChrysler agreed to sell an 80.1 -per cent stake in the Chrysler Group to private equity group Cerberus Capital Management LLC in a $7.4 billion deal.

DaimlerChrysler shareholders will meet in Berlin on Oct. Four to approve the name change. The proposal is expected to pass, despite concerns that, by not restoring the Daimler-Benz name, the company is ignoring the work of Karl Benz, who designed and patented an internal combustion flat engine before linking his company, Benz & Cie, with Daimler in 1926.

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