Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover plans to hire over 500 engineers and designers by the end of this fiscal in a bid to support its product development programme. This addition will take the total strength of its engineers and designers to over 5,500 from 5,000 at present.
In a filing to the US-based Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said, ?By the end of fiscal 2013, JLR intends to grow its team of engineers and designers to over 5,500, up from approximately 5,000 at present to support its product development programme, which will lead to an associated increase in JLR?s staff costs and an increase in product development expenses capitalised in accordance with our accounting policy.?
?JLR?s employee cost increased by 38.2% to ?615 million in the six months ended September, 2012, from ?445.1 million in the equivalent period in 2011. The increase is attributable to greater production volumes and the recruitment of new employees both in manufacturing and engineering,? the company said in the filing.
JLR?s total employee headcount increased to 25,368 in the September quarter from 20,923 a year ago. JLR has added around 3,000 manufacturing employees to support increased production in Halewood and Solihull and around 2,000 engineers to support JLR?s increased R&D investment.
JLR operates three major production facilities ? Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood ? employing a total of around 14,000 employees as on September 30, 2012, and two advanced design and engineering facilities, employing a total of around 10,500 employees, which includes employees at its corporate headquarters located at Whitley and Land Rover design and engineering centre at Gaydon. All these sites are located in the United Kingdom.
?JLR is in the process of consolidating most of its design and engineering centres at Gaydon and all administrative offices at Whitley to maximize office capacity and to support its new business plans,? the company said in the SEC filing.
The British marque brands recently announced 800 new jobs at Solihull plant to support the introduction of new model programmes. It has already recruited about 1,000 employees at each of its Halewood and Solihull sites and has added an additional shift at each site as well.
JLR prices $500-m senior notes at coupon of 5.63%
JLR on Tuesday announced the pricing of its $500-million senior notes due in 2023 at a coupon rate of 5.625% per annum. The notes, $100 million more than the $400 million announced by JLR on January 23, are issued on a senior unsecured basis by JLR, Land Rover, Jaguar Land Rover North America, Land Rover Exports and Jaguar Land Rover Exports. ?We are pleased to have completed this transaction successfully, which we believe demonstrates the confidence of the market in our company and plans,? said Kenneth Gregor, CFO, JLR, said in a release on the BSE. In March 2012, the company had issued ?500-million senior notes due in 2020 at a coupon of 8.25% per annum.
?This transaction further strengthens our overall balance sheet and capital structure, and we thank the investors for their support,? said C Ramakrishnan, CFO, Tata Motors. The share of Tata Motors closed at R303.65, down by 1.59% on the BSE on Tuesday.
JLR had said that net proceeds from the issuance and sale of the notes will be used for general corporate purposes, including to support JLR?s on-going growth and capital spending plans.
