Adesso nel gioco entra pure David Richards con la Prodrive

(forse sarebbe la cosa migliore)

The Business

THE venture capital consortium that won the auction for Aston Martin this year

is to consider joining the race for Ford’s £3bn ($5.9bn, e4.5bn) Jaguar and Land

Rover marques.

David Richards, the motoring entrepreneur backed by Investment Dar, a Middle

East venture capital group, told The Business: “Because of my relationship with

Aston Martin and Ford Motor Company, it is obviously something we will consider

when something is formalised. But I don’t believe there is a formal process up

and running yet.”

Richards is the first carmaker to publicly express interest in the latest brands

Ford is considering selling. It is part of a drastic restructuring aimed at

refocusing the US car giant on its core business and improving profits.

While a sale has not been decided, Ford said on Tuesday it is working with

advisers to sort out the future of the two brands, which have been rumoured to

be up for sale for more than a year.

Richards said: “There are obvious synergies, carmaking synergies, [between the

brands] but there is a lot of discussion to be had before I would even get

involved with that.

“I have been concentrating on Aston Martin the past few months and it is only

recently that I have put that to bed.

“This [Jaguar] is a very complex business that requires significant

restructuring. It would need to be done with a fair amount of diplomacy to

manage all the stakeholders.

“It would be a fairly high-profile activity and we have seen one of those go

completely wrong in the form of Rover. Ford is responsible in this respect, and

if it does sell it would want to be sure it is going to sensible people.”

Other interested parties are expected to be private equity groups prepared to

pay a premium for the cachet attached to the loss-making brands.

Last month, Cerberus, an American private equity firm, bought an 80.1% stake in

Chrysler from German carmaker DaimlerChrysler.

I fondi di Private Equity nell'automobilismo non hanno mai avuto gran successo ed i casi Piaggio, Ducati ne sono dimostrazioni evidenti. Con l'avventuara Chrysler in ballo mi sembrerebbe strano si buttassero anche su Land e Jag. In ogni caso rivenderanno fra qualche anno, è nello statuto. Ed a quel punto Fiat potrebbe essere pronta a comprare. Chissà