Tata Motors is on the verge of introducing a low priced version of Jaguar Land Rover in another three years. The move will be further enhanced with sourcing parts from the similar cheaper countries like China, India and Poland. This is akin to Ford’s gesture in deriving parts from these countries for about 20% while Tata Motors would derive 35% in the event of the process materializing. Tata will involve in outsourcing the design and development operations related to JLR.
JLR has been with Tata Motors since 2008 after a deal for $2.3 billion. Tata’s focus on the JLR product is due to the increased demand in China, where the target is 25000 units for 2010-11. Last year the company could muster a sale of 17000 units with the launch of Jaguar XJ the company is pinning on increasing the sale to 20000 units during this FY. Consequently there will be Jaguar LRX in 2011 and the compact Jaguar in 2013, the sources close to the company revealed. Based on the outcome of product favor and geographical matrix, Tata Motors foresees a net profit of 14-15% from JLR during this year. The similar profit from domestic operations might be around 10-15% and the company has chalked out its plans for unleashing its stake sale to generate funds. There might be issue of equities from the company any time. In its earlier such move Tata made a proposal for raising $700 million by way of selling voting right shares. In another tactical move Tata is quite contented to retain its net debt-to-equity ratio to 1:1 against 1:96 effective on 30 June 2010, making the net debt of Rs19,983 crore.