Ford (F) lines up four buyers for European brands

Posted Sep 25th 2007 10:59AM by Brian White
Filed under: Deals, Rumors, Ford Motor (F)

Ford Motor Co.'s (NYSE: F) Alan Mulally has wasted no time in the last year as Ford's CEO in trying to right the ship of one of the world's largest automakers. He's severed ties with a whole slew of employees, closed facilities, and has somehow stepped up with a few design wins; most notably, the huge-selling Ford Edge small crossover (CUV). But that's just the beginning.

Ford's financial woes have and will continue until sometime in 2009 as Mulally slices and dices his way through the complete mess he inherited from former CEO and grandson of the company's founder, Bill Ford, Jr. Part of any restructuring is finding pieces of the company that one can lop off; that is, those that are non-core. Some of those large pieces happen to be Ford's European brands like Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover. Aston Martin's already been taken care of, so that leaves the latter brands to sell off, and Ford now says it has four companies in line to bid.

Ford has lined up One Equity Partners, Ripplewood, Tata Motors and TPG to bid on the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, although none of the four companies have completed the necessary due diligence yet. Heck, that's never stopped billion-dollar purchases before, but when it comes to buying global luxury auto brands, one must tread quietly with the correct homework, as the dot-com bubble disappeared years ago.

Ford obviously does not want the current state of the company or the automotive industry in general to undermine the value of those two brands, which is a smart decision. The real question is whether a buyer for either brand (or both) would be seeking a short-term exposure and return rather than reviving the brands to make a killer profit before selling them once again. Of course, the term "killer profit" and "automotive industry" are generally not synonymous. Well, at least not yet.

Tags: Alan Mulally, AlanMulally, Aston Martin, AstonMartin, Europe, F, Ford Motor, FordMotor, inthenews, Jaguar