Ford fixes Land Rover price
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May 24, 2000: 4:48 p.m. ET
Ford finalizes purchase price at $2.73 billion for BMW's Land Rover unit
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Ford Motor Co. announced Wednesday that it finalized its purchase price for the struggling sport utility vehicle company, Land Rover, from BMW AG at 3 billion euros, or about $2.73 billion.
The announcement scuttles any speculation that General Motors (GM: Research, Estimates) might come in with a higher offer for BMW's unit.
Ford (F: Research, Estimates) CEO Jac Nasser said Land Rover will be in the red for two years before turning "good profitability" in the third year. Land Rover posted a loss in 1999, a very strong year for sport utility vehicles.
Nasser said Ford is considering new investment in Land Rover's facilities near Birmingham, England, but declined to say if Ford will lay off any of the British unit's 13,000 workers.
"We will need to make sure that we have a fully competitive situation going forward. We will spend the next three months or so ensuring that it is competitive and look at what future investments may be required," Nasser said.
The Ford acquisition involves the entire Land Rover line of vehicles -- Range Rover, Discovery, Freelander and Defender -- including assembly and engineering facilities as well as Land Rover's testing center. The Land Rover business will become part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, which includes Lincoln, Volvo, Jaguar and Aston Martin.
Ford has been building its presence in Europe's luxury car market after buying the car business of Sweden's Volvo for about $6.5 billion last year.
--from staff and wire reports
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