Buyers kick tires on Ford's luxury Land Rover, Jaguar divisions

Ford Motor Co. has received several bids for its Jaguar and Land Rover units, but a spokesman said Thursday that they were preliminary and no sale of either British automaking business is imminent.

Thursday was a deadline to submit early bids on the two units, but a decision likely is several months away.

"We've had contacts from third parties, and we're actively evaluating them as part of our strategic review," said John Gardiner, a Ford spokesman in London. "They've only been preliminary discussions, and no decisions have been made."

He would not say how many bids have been received or who submitted them.

Ford, which lost $12.7 billion USlast year and $282 million US in the first quarter, has cut thousands of jobs and closed factories in an effort to shrink itself to match lower demand for its products.

The company last year mortgaged its factories to get a $23.4 billion US financing package to fuel its restructuring and cover expected losses in its automotive operations. It expects to burn up $17 billion US in cash before returning to profitability sometime in 2009.

Analysts have said the company may be burning cash at a higher rate than expected and may need to sell the British brands to raise money.

The company sold its Aston Martin luxury sports car unit in March for $848 million US and it has said that all options are open, including a potential sale of its Volvo unit.

A company official, who asked not to be identified because the bidding process is confidential, said Thursday that preliminary bids have been submitted only for Jaguar and Land Rover, and that the company did not take bids for Volvo.