Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover parts ways with its Brit CEO

London, Jan.26 (ANI): The TATA Group-owned Jaguar Land Rover, which is Britain's largest carmaker, has parted company with its British chief executive David Smith over fears of a deepening rift with its unions.

In a brief statement, the TATA's said Smith was leaving the company and would be replaced by Ravi Kant, a fellow director.

The company, which is based in Gaydon in Warwickshire, declined to comment on why Smith was leaving, but insisted that his departure was not linked to the breakdown of talks with unions over the weekend.ant's appointment to the role of chief executive is not permanent and comes amid intense speculation that Ratan Tata, the company's chairman, was attempting to line up an industry heavyweight to take the position.

Carl-Peter Forster, the former Opel and Vauxhall executive, has been strongly linked to a role within Tata Motors in Europe.

Tata inherited Smith as the chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover after its 2.3 billion dollar acquisition of the group from Ford in the summer of 2008.

Smith was the company's chief financial officer and became acting-chief executive just ahead of the deal after the death of his predecessor, Geoff Polites.

Smith was unavailable for comment last night, and gave no hint of his imminent departure in an interview this month. (ANI)