Jaguar Land Rover to Get GE Capital Working Loan

According the the Financial Times newspaper, Jaguar Land Rover is about to announce that it has secured 170 million pounds ($285,5 million) in working capital from GE Capital. The loan is for a five year period and it’s meant to get the company owned by Tata Motors Ltd. out of their financial problems caused by the recession.

JLR only sold 70,437 units in Europe during the first 10 months of 2009, as luxury car sales got hit the hardest by the recession. According to data released by the European automakers association, JLR’s sales are down 29.1 percent.

GE Capital is the financial division of General Electric Co. in the United States. The loan will boost the working capital for Jaguar by shortening the 30 to 40 day period needed to deliver the cars after they have been produced, said the newspaper.

"We are talking to several other European carmakers about a similar facility, but as far as we know, this is the first of its kind," Rich Green, CEO of GE Capital's distribution finance business said in the Financial Times.

JLR was setup as a single entity to manage the businesses of both Jaguar Cars and Land Rover, which were acquired by Tata Motors from the Ford Motor Company in 2008. Tata Motors, a multinational corporation based in Mumbai, India is part of the Tata Group. Tata Motors has a consolidated revenue of $16 billion after the acquisition of British automotive brands Jaguar and Land Rover.