Jaguar Land Rover raise £500 million to fund expansion

Jaguar Land Rover raise £500 million

Jaguar Land Rover is raising £500 million on the bond market to fund its expansion, including new models and new facilities.

Hot on the heels of the Jaguar Land Rover joint venture deal with Chery in China comes the news that Jaguar has dipped in to the private bond market to raise £500 million to help with its bold and bullish plans to make JLR a major world player in the premium vehicle sector.

JLR plans to invest £1.5 billion a year on expansion and is making sure its coffers can cope by issuing £500 million of senior notes due in 2020, with the net proceeds of the bonds being used for general corporate purposes.

JLR has said that its planned investment of £1.5 billion in 2012 will rise in 2013, and that around 50 per cent of the annual investment would be used for R&D and the remainder on fixed assets.

Those fixed assets will include stuff like the new engine plant planned for Wolverhampton and the expansion of JLR Halewood to cope with the seemingly bullet-proof order book for the Evoque. JLR have moved Halewood on to a three-shift system to cope with demand and are planning substantial investment to keep up with orders.

And with £750 million a year going in to R&D alone, we can look forward to some properly appealing new stuff coming from Jaguar and Land Rover in the coming years.

By Cars UK