But it seems that current owners Tata are categorically denying it.
The French automotive conglomerate Groupe PSA are on the hunt for brands to add to its widening portfolio, and while it can claim to have a stake in the luxury space with its nascent DS marque, the fact that DS is ultimately a splinter from Citroën means that it lacks the provenance and experience to truly cut it as a premium marque (for the time being, at least). As such, experts reckon that PSA and its boss Carlos Tavares, who can already lay claim to turning around newly-acquired marques Opel & Vauxhall within a year of takeover, are eyeing premium brands to push the group into bigger leagues.
Considering that the BMW Group is solid, Daimler’s been chewed up by Geely, and the Volkswagen Group maintains an iron grip on its dozen-or-so brands, the only sensible target that remains is Jaguar-Land Rover. While the earlier mentioned brands are also suffering from Brexit issues and the US-China trade war, they’ve managed to remain profitable through fiscal-year 2018, in stark contrast to how JLR weathered the same climate.
JLR posted a pre-tax loss of £3.4-billion, accrued in the last three quarters of last year, due to a one-off value adjustment of its assets. Even with the asset adjustment removed, losses were still pinned at £273-million, more than threefold compared to its £90-million loss that it reported for 2017. As such, the Tata Group has been forced to extensively cull JLR’s activities and pare it down to the bare necessities – that has already seen the death the beautiful Range Rover SV Coupe, as well as the Land Rover Discovery SVX.
Further, Jaguar-Land Rover’s commitment to electrifying a large chunk of its portfolio means that despite throwing out the passion projects, the company should continue to spend heavily on R&D for the next generation of its products.
When interviewed by Autocar India, PSA boss Carlos Tavares clarified that the company has “no specific targets” at present, but “if there are opportunities, of course, [PSA] will consider it.”
In response, Tata Group has flat-out denied any interest in selling the entirety-of or even part-of JLR.
“There is no truth to the rumours that Tata Motors is looking to divest its stake in Jaguar-Land Rover.” – Statement, Tata Motors
If Tata remains steadfast in its stance, JLR should be preparing to make more major cost-cutting moves in an attempt to nurse its finances back to health. The company is currently facing major headwinds in China due to woeful quality control, and back in Europe, the company is scheduled to shut down its plants a couple of times this year as a result of Brexit concerns. If all goes to plan, JLR should be back on its feet either within this year or by the end of FY2020. Assuming Groupe PSA doesn’t come in and snap it all up.
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