Not content with its recent purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, India’s Tata Motors is turning their sights eastward with a lock on Nissan. The Ford deal netted India’s largest conglomerate three other hallowed marques too - Rover, Lancaster and Daimler (this one, not that one) - for the bargain basement price of $2.3 billion. Buy two, get three free!

In a deal signed last night, the Tata Group will get a 37% stake in Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. for $4 billion. That, according to Japanese law, is enough for a controlling stake in the boardroom. As part of the deal, Tata will also acquire the Datsun and Prince names, which chairman Ratan Tata plans to revive, adding that they “still have a lot of cachet in nations like Kenya” thanks to the East Safari Rally of the seventies.

Tata was founded in 1945 by Jamshetji Tata and produced its first vehicle in 1954 with Daimler-Benz. The car pictured above is the Tata Sumo, a mid-size SUV that, to be honest, seems rather top-heavy. Which, really, is the first thing you think of when you hear the words “sumo” and “tata.”

[Source, Image]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 12:35 am
by Ben and is filed under asia, datsun, nissan.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.