LONDON: The Ford Motor Company confirmed Friday it had received several expressions of interest for its UK-manufactured brands Jaguar and Land Rover, although lips were zipped about the process.

Declared Ford's British spokesman John Gardiner: "We're not ruling anything in or anything out in terms of options."

Following Thursday's preliminary bids deadline, Gardiner told the Financial Times Ford had received indicative bids from private equity companies and rival automakers.

It is thought they include Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, along with Ripplewood Holdings, a group headed by former Chrysler president Thomas T Stallkamp; and One Equity Partners whose senior management includes quondam Ford ceo Jacques A Nasser.

  • Meantime, in Detroit, a long awaited glimmer of light for General Motors as it unveiled H1 figures reflecting a narrowing of the gap with current global leader Toyota.

    GM's worldwide sales for the period totaled 4.674 million units, 1.7% up year-on-year and closing on the Japanese automaker, which notched 4.716m units the same period - a lead narrowed to just 42,000 units but a sales increase of 8%.

    Data sourced from New York Times and Reuters.com; additional content by WARC staff