GE Capital agrees loan with Jaguara
JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) yesterday secured a £170m working capital facility from GE Capital.
The five-year loan will help the money-losing car company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, as it is struggles in the global financial downturn.
The loan will be drawn down as soon as vehicles are made in its three UK production lines.
It will boost the working capital for Jaguar by shortening the 30-to-40-day gap it has to wait between producing cars and delivering them to dealerships.
“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, chief executive officer of GE Capital’s distribution finance business said.
“We are pleased that our funding plans have further progressed and welcome the confidence shown by GE Capital in the Jaguar Land Rover business,” said JLR’s chief financial officer Ken Gregor.
Tata has injected more than £1.2bn into the firm to cover losses since buying the businesses from Ford last year.
It has cut spending and production, and last month unveiled plans to close one of its two Midlands-based plants as part of its restructuring.