Tata deal an honour for India, say analysts

Corporate analysts Wednesday hailed Tata Motors' deal with Ford Motor to buy two iconic British auto brands Jaguar and Land Rover as not just a milestone for the Tata group but a historic moment for India.
"This is a landmark deal and it is a landmark deal for India also," says Deven Malkan, a noted commentator and editor-in-chief of Corporate India magazine.
"The deal has all the ingredients of a lion-hearted industrialist. The critics had earlier tried to run down the Corus deal and look at the Tata Steel's share price today - it is flourishing," he said.

"Tata is a conservative and staid industrial house and before jumping into the deal fray everybody in the market knows that they would have first made sure of raising funds along with a study of the deal and its ramifications."
Sanjay Choksi, president of automobile appraisal group Western India Automobile Association, said: "This deal will help Tata Motors in gaining prestige and enhancing the Tata brand in the automobile world internationally."
"I think buying a readymade company also paves the way for the enhancement of indigenous automobile industry. Though the automobile industry here has a lot of tie-ups with major international giants, but this deal will certainly bring about a change in the Indian car world," Choksi said.
Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of "AutoCar", said: "It is a big thing not just for the Tatas but also for the Indian automotive industry. It means a lot."
However, he contended that the deal and the transfer of technology from the Ford Motor would not have much impact in the domestic field.
"The cars are from the extreme high-end spectrum, which means it will have limited buyers in the domestic market. But then if you look from the international band, then it will certainly have an impact on the fortunes of Tata Motors," Sorabjee said.
Moreover, Sorabjee felt that even the high-end technology transfer may not have much impact on the domestic front, "though some changes might be felt in the Indian automotive industry, in the coming days."
Indo-Asian News Service