Ford 'preparing car marques for sale'

Car giant Ford has drafted in accountancy firm KPMG to go over the books at luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover ahead of an expected sale later this year, it was reported today.

KPMG will overhaul the accounts of both companies to help prepare the famous marques for a potential £1bn sale, the Sunday Times newspaper says.

Ford has yet to announce a final decision to sell the two businesses but confirmed two weeks ago that it had appointed investment banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to consider future options for the brands.

KPMG, which declined to comment, will also look at the two companies’ pension deficits, the newspaper says. At the end of 2005, Land Rover had a deficit of £193.5m and Jaguar £298.2m.

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for £1.6bn and paid £1.7bn for Land Rover in 2000.

The two marques form part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group (PAG) along with Volvo, which is not thought to be up for sale.

But the company is considering the sale of the two brands in an overhaul of the business after the overall Ford group posted losses of $12.7bn last year – the largest deficit in its 103-year history.

Ford, which was unavailable for comment, also sold another iconic PAG marque, Aston Martin, for £450m in March.

Jaguar employs around 10,000 staff in the UK, at sites in Allesley and Whitley in Coventry, Castle Vale in Birmingham and Halewood, Liverpool.

Land Rover employs around 9,000 staff, with the bulk of the workforce based at its manufacturing sites in Solihull, West Midlands and Halewood near Liverpool, alongside its product engineering centre and head office in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

Unions have sought meetings with Ford to put forward their concerns over potential job losses if the sale of the two businesses goes ahead.