More vultures circle Jag

TWO key suitors have emerged for Jaguar as cashed-up companies circle the loss-making car-maker.

One is a former Ford Australia chief Jac Nasser, now a senior figure at One Equity Partners, a venture capital arm of the bank JP Morgan.

The other is British construction machinery group JCB.

JCB chairman, Sir Anthony Bamford, admitted last week that he had expressed an interest in buying Jaguar from Ford, and said Jaguar was a "very strong brand with great potential which at this moment I believe is not being realised".

Bamford may have a ready-made ally with his bid in Matthew Taylor, a former Land Rover managing director, who joined JCB in March.

However, JCB may have tough competition in Nasser, the former Ford boss known as "Jac the Knife" for is tough management style.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK reported that Nasser, who was fired by Ford in 2001 after just two years in the top job, was part of a team from One Equity pursuing Ford’s luxury brands.

Ford is under pressure to offload some of its loss-making luxury nameplates in the Premier Automotive Group, but the official line is that neither Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo nor Aston Martin are for sale.

It is facing a sharp downturn in the US car market, partly due to high oil prices, which have deterred drivers from buying many of its products, according to The Guardian.

Ford has appointed a senior Wall Street banker, Ken Leet, to advise it on loss-making offshoots including its Premier Automotive Group.

The Financial Times also reported that JCB would only buy Jaguar if Ford was prepared to split the loss-making car-maker from Land Rover.

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for 1.6 billion pounds ($A4 billion) but has struggled to make money with the brand.

European analysts and bankers have also suggested wealthy Russian businessman Nikolai Smolensky, who bought British sports car company TVR in 2004, could also be a possible Jaguar buyer.

Hyundai Motor Company has also denied rumours it would buy into Jaguar.

Ford is due to provide an update next month to its "way forward" restructuring plan, which involves more than 25,000 job cuts.