Tata Motors to consider raising funds

New Delhi, May 21: Country's leading car maker Tata Motors Ltd today said its board will consider various options to raise long-term capital funds at a meeting on May 28.

However, no other details were disclosed. Tata Motors Ltd would consider various options for raising long term capital funds at the board meeting on May 28, 2008, a company statement said. It is also scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings on the same day. The company, which in January unveiled an ultra low-cost car Nano priced at Rs one lakh, has already announced plans to raise four billion dollars for its local and overseas plans, and has also arranged a bridge loan of three billion dollars for the Ford deal.

It had, in March, reached a deal to buy Ford Motor Co's Jaguar and Land Rover brands for 2.3 billion dollars.

Moody's Investors Service, which said in April it was reviewing Tata Motors for a possible downgrade, has said the bridge loan would increase Tata Motors' leverage ''materially in the near term'', given the increasingly volatile and challenging market conditions.

UNI