Finally the deal has been clinched. The hallowed and revered British brand are now owned by Tata Motors.  It all started in june last year when Ford announced its intention to sell Jaguar and Land Rover together as a package. The two company’s employ close to 16000 people at their UK plants in West Midlands and Merseyside.

 Ford wants to concentrate on its core North American business which is making huge losses and made a record 12.3 billion $ in losses last year. Ford hopes to turn this around in the next 2 year and hence wants to focus all its energy into the US operations.

Although Land Rover is still profitable, Ford has never been able to turnaround Jaguar and has never managed to make any money from its investments in the company. And though the 2.3 Billion $ amount may seem a lot, Ford bought them for double the amount when it acquired the two marques 20 years ago, leading market analyst to argue that the purchase was indeed a mistake. Ford paid $2.5bn for Jaguar in 1989 and $2.7 billion for Land Rover in 2000, and is believed to have invested an additional $10bn.

Ford also sold the iconic Aston Martin brand to UK-led investment consortium in a deal worth 955.2 million $ last year.

The deal will be completed by the end of the summer subject to regulatory approvals and according to TATA, there wont be any significant changes to Jaguar or Land Rover employees.

“We are very pleased at the prospect of Jaguar and Land Rover being a significant part of our automotive business,” Tata said.

“We have enormous respect for the two brands and will endeavour to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness, keeping their identities intact.”

“We aim to support their growth, while holding true to our principles of allowing the management and employees to bring their experience and expertise to bear on the growth of the business.”

Under the terms of the deal, Ford will contribute about 600 Million $ to the Jaguar and Land Rover pension plans. Ford will also continue to supply JLR, for differing periods with engines, stamping and other components, in addition to a variety of other technologies.

Ford Motor Credit company in addition will also provide financing for Jaguar and Land Rover dealers and customers for a period of 12 months.

Ironically for Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover are now looking in better shape than ever before. Both carmakers have wowed the motoring press with their new models in recent months, both clear signs that they are fully topped up with Ford investment.

Jaguar’s latest XF model is seen as a very worthy replacement for the S-class and the hope is that it - along with a replacement for its more upmarket XJ model - will do much to revive sales. Land Rover’s small LRX concept, which was first unveiled in Detroit in January, was also greeted with cheers.

We can now hope to see some of the Land Rover and Jaguar technology in TATA car’s in the future which I am sure would let them steal a march over the rivals in India and abroad.