After 8 to 9 months of comprehensive evaluation, FORD has done the deal with Tatas to sell their Jaguar and Land Rover businesses. The deal may cost Tatas over 2B USD. Ford has sold these brands for less than half of its original purchase price.

Times of India reports 

The Government on Wednesday showered rich compliments on the Tata Group for acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover car brands and holding India’s flag high in the highly competitive international business.

“My congratulations to the Tatas and entire corporate world as they have held India’s private sector flag high. The world is looking at India,” Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said in New Delhi.

He said homegrown Indian firms have demonstrated to the global business how competent and progressive they have become even in the midst of a slowdown.

“The most important thing is that world is recognising India’s credibility”. Read the rest of this entry »

 Economic Times reports

 India, along with emerging market peers China, Brazil and Russia, is expected to transform the global business landscape and will have a greater influence on the markets across the world by 2018, a study says.

The study by UK-based Chartered Management Institute looking ahead to 2018, predicted what the world of work and management would look like and examined how organisations can prepare for it.

“In the probable future, Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) nations will have a greater influence on business markets and transform the business landscape,” the study said in its description of the the most probable picture of the world of work and management in 2018. Read the rest of this entry »

In a tough financial climate, Tata Motors is still able to raise 3B debt (short term) to enable it to go through the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motors.

Times of India reports

Tata Motors has signed a deal to receive a $3 billion one-year bridge loan from Citigroup and JPMorgan to help finance a potential purchase of luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover, sources familiar with the deal said on Tuesday. “It is signed, but it’s still at an early process,” said one of the sources, who was not authorised to speak to the media.

A separate source briefed on the deal later said the loan would be for one year. Citigroup, JPMorgan and Tata Motors all declined to comment. Tata is expected to agree on a deal by the end of the month to purchase the two well-known UK brands from US auto maker Ford Motor, according to reports in India.

The Indian firm could raise up to $4 billion on domestic and overseas debt markets, based on its previous announcements and media reports. Tata is believed also to need money to help pay for the manufacturing of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, that it will launch in the second half of the year. But Tata will face a tough debt market environment, as a global financial crisis has raised the premiums demanded by investors, especially from riskier Asian issuers.

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The Wall Street was quite nervous after the bailing out of Bear Sterns by Federal Reserve. There is genuine fear of further pull down of the market.

The Economic Times reports :

With a deal in place to save Bear Stearns from bankruptcy, the company’s shares traded above the offer price Monday even as investors began turning a critical eye to other investment banks amid worries about how far the credit contagion could spread.

Despite the weekend deal in which JPMorgan Chase & Co bought Bear Stearns for a fraction of its value last week, worries that other banks had sizable exposure to troubled credit markets sent global markets tumbling. Wall Street managed to rally from sharp losses Monday as investors went bargain-hunting.

A complete collapse of Bear Stearns might have completely crushed the already-dwindling confidence in the global financial system, which has frozen up after last year’s collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

Bear Stearns was the most exposed to risky bets on the loans; it is now the first major bank to be undone by that market’s collapse. But the fact that a major investment bank could reach the verge of buckling — and be sold at such a discount — sent dismay through Wall Street and beyond.

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