Cerberus joins group of financial investors to bid for Jaguar and Land Rover

AUTOBLOG.COM | Posted Jun 14th 2007 3:35PM by John Neff




While poring over the RSS feeds today, we noticed a tiny article in Automotive News about Ford's desire to sell off both Jaguar and Land Rover. The potential sale has been in the news as of late, but this article caught our eye because it reveals a potential bidder with which we're all familiar. According to Automotive News, three private equity groups including Blackston, Cinven and... Cerberus (!) have shown interest in joining the auction for two of Ford's Premiere Auto Group brands. Cerberus, of course, is the same private equity group involved in the purchase of Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler.

While the news that Cerberus has thrown its hat in the ring for the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover is not necessarily surprising (this is what private equity firms do, they buy stuff), the thought of a new American automaker housing the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands along with both Jaguar and Land Rover certainly changes the landscape of the domestic auto industry in the near future. While Land Rover isn't in near as dire a straits as Jaguar, neither brand are performing at their peak potential. Unfortunately, neither is any Chrysler Group brand. Cerberus must really believe it has the magic touch to be getting involved with so many down but not out automakers.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

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