TALKS between Jaguar Land Rover and the British government over a possible state loan to help the struggling carmaker are close to collapse, reports said in London today.
Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors, is said to be unhappy at the conditions being set by the British government, which reports said included demanding the right to choose a chairman and veto redundancies.
The Financial Times said the demands, part of a deal under which Jaguar would have received £175m ($265m) in government loan guarantees, were rejected by Tata.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) told the BBC that the government was “prepared to help, although not on any terms”.
“Any government financial assistance must, of course, protect taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Jaguar said the talks were continuing, but the BBC reported that the carmaker views the government’s proposals as backdoor nationalisation and would likely turn the offer down.
