Jaguar Land Rover Part With David Smith

Published: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 16:32 [IST]

The Tata Group-owned Jaguar Land Rover, Britain"s largest car manufacturer, 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 confirmed that Smith's position would now be taken over by Ravi Kant, a fellow director.

Though Tata's give the reason os Smith's departure as Union rift, 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.

Smith was with Tata's 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.

He went on to become the company"s chief financial officer and then the acting-chief executive just ahead of the deal after the death of his predecessor, Geoff Polites.

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