After the sale of Aston Martin, analysts were speculating that Ford may look to sell Jaguar and Mazda next to raise much needed cash for the troubled auto maker. But regardless of a huge $12.5 billion loss in 2006, Ford has no attentions of getting rid of Mazda, and they have very good reasons not to.
After Ford raised their 15% share in Mazda to 33.39% in 1999, Mazda has made a remarkable come back since it fell into a financial crises prior to the Ford alliance. In a recent visit to Mazda’s headquarters in Hiroshima, CEO Alan Mulally said that Ford has no intentions of getting rid of Mazda despite the U.S. automakers troubled times.
While Ford reported a $12.7 billion loss, Mazda announced a 46% jump in profit for the last quarter. The fifth largest Japanese automaker reported their sixth straight record profit with 14.9 billion yen ($123.3 million).
Now Alan Mulally is working hand-in-hand with Mazda in a new growth plan, called Mazda Advancement, that calls for an increase for global retails sales from 1.3 million to 1.6 million by March 2011. One main goal to help raise profits calls for further development of hybrid technology with Ford and more research in in hydrogen fuel cell cars.
Infact, Ford may be looking into Jaguar more closely to raise cash.
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