Tata Motors set to seal Jaguar, Land Rover deal on March 26

24 March 2008

Mumbai: Tata Motors is all set to become the new owners of Jaguar and Land Rover - the iconic UK brands of US carmaker Ford Motors - with the signing of the deal slated for March 26.

Reports quoting the majority workers union at Ford Motors Unite said the MoU would be signed on Wednesday (March 26).

Tata Motors will retain the manufacturing base of the two models in the UK and source the supply of engines and transmission from plants there, reports quoted Unite's Andrew Dodgson as saying.

Ford, meanwhile, has agreed to plug a "substantial" deficit in the workers' pension fund, he added.

Tata, which offered to pay around $2 billion for the Ford brands, has assured workers that it will keep all three of Jaguar and Land Rover's British plants at Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the Midlands and Halewood on Merseyside.

Dodgson put the total number of jobs at stake at anywhere between 35,000 and 40,000, taking into account ancillary units as well.