The Ford Motor Company was on Thursday expected to receive bids for its Jaguar and Land Rover subsidiaries from a variety of companies including private equity firms and possibly other carmakers, DPA QUOTED The New York Times as saying. The report cited informed sources as saying that possible bidders for the two British companies could include Cerberus Capital Management, the investment group that bought the Chrysler Group in May from DaimlerChrysler. Also listed among potential bidders is Ripplewood Holdings, headed by former Chrysler president Thomas T Stallkamp, and investment group One Equity Partners, whose senior partners include Jacques A Nasser, CEO of Ford when it acquired Land Rover in 2000. The combined sale may generate up to 8 billion dollars for the US motor concern, the report said quoting analysts' estimates. Among the carmakers that may be interested in bidding are India's Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, reports in India said Thursday. South Korean firm Hyundai as well as a Chinese firm are also believed to be potential suitors. Ford has already divested itself of its luxury Aston Martin marque for 848 million dollars. The US auto giant lost 12.6 billion dollars in 2006 primarily due to problems in its North American market and has launched streamlining and cost-cutting measures which include factory closures and thousands of redundancies.
