JLR and FGA announce financing partnership:
more to come?
Clive Goldthorp
Jaguar XF is JLR's halo product right now - will it eventually sire a big RWD
Alfa Romeo?
THE exciting prospect of the Alfa-Jaguar partnership which AROnline
predicted in December 2007 may have taken a step closer to realisation following the formal
announcement of a liaison between Fiat Group Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover for the provision
of financial services across Europe..
The agreement between Jaguar Land Rover and Fiat Group Automobiles Financial
Services (FGAFS), which was announced earlier this week, will result in FGAFS providing
a full range of automotive financial services for Jaguar Land Rover’s dealers and customers
in the main European markets. The agreement will gradually replace the arrangement with Ford,
whose financial arm provided support during the Ford ownership of Jaguar Land Rover.
FGAFS, which is a 50%-50% joint venture between the bank, Crédit Agricole Group,
and Fiat Group Automobiles, will start taking on all Jaguar Land Rover’s financing activities
in a total of ten European affiliates from February next year and the transition should be completed by June 2009.
Jaguar Land Rover chose FGAFS after a competitive process involving ten potential providers.
FGAFS will be able to offer Jaguar or Land Rover branded products with competitive terms to customers
and dealers. Crédit Agricole will provide the funding to FGAFS.
AROnline reckons that this week’s announcement might just be a precursor to
another agreement between Jaguar Land Rover and Fiat Group Automobiles which will see the Jaguar XF’s
platform underpinning Alfa Romeo’s 166 replacement, Project 941.
See: Fiat
and Tata: an Alfa Romeo and Jaguar JV?
AROnline 17th December, 2007.
Alfa 169 (Project 941): Running on an XF platform would be a wise move...
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