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Finally, Jaguar Land Rover has a new owner. Well, nearly. Following a long and drawn out process that started with the ‘Will Ford sell Jaguar or won’t it?’ rumours back in August 2006, progressing through the ‘Ford is selling, but who to?’ stage, to the more recent ‘Tata is the preferred buyer, but the deal’s not quite done yet…’, on 26 March offi cial Ford/Tata statements lifted some of the mist that surrounded Jaguar Land Rover’s future. Though the statement by Ford is of a ‘defi nitive agreement to sell its Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors,’ the deal is yet to be concluded. That should happen by the end of the next fi nancial quarter, ‘subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.’ Tata’s statement is, of course, much the same. In other words, there should be no reason at all for either side to pull out now, and nor do we expect them to. So, to all intents and purposes, Jaguar Land Rover has a new owner and I, for one, am both pleased and optimistic for Jaguar’s future under Tata stewardship. There are several reasons why I think Tata should do a good job – its proven record in the takeovers of other British companies and its own successful history being amongst them – but the main reason I am optimistic is rather more anecdotal. Of all the Jaguar employees that I’ve spoken to about the takeover process – and remember that for them, their future employment has potentially been on the line so they will have had more reason to take an interest in the saga than most – not one has had anything other than a confi dent, positive outlook. And they must have taken some convincing…