[LONDON] Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will get backing from the UK government for a £1.5 billion (S$2.6 billion) loan aimed at easing the strain on suppliers hit by a production halt at the automaker that was triggered by a cyberattack.
The loan, to be provided by a commercial bank and guaranteed by UK Export Finance, will be repaid over five years, the government said on Saturday (Sep 27). It comes after the Range Rover maker idled plants in the UK, Slovakia, Brazil and India as a result of the attack earlier this month, derailing the wider supply chain.
The Labour government had been in talks to offer support to suppliers caught in the fallout of the hack, which forced some vendors to send staff home while others await payments from JLR. Britain’s largest carmaker employs 34,000 people in the UK, with a further 120,000 jobs in the country tied to its supply chain.
Providing relief to the automotive sector will help ease some pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, as his ruling Labour Party gathers in Liverpool starting on Sunday for its annual conference.
“This loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and throughout the UK,” said Business Secretary Peter Kyle, who this week visited the automaker’s headquarters and supplier Webasto.
JLR said on Thursday that some of its systems were back online, enabling it to work through a backlog of supplier invoices, accelerate parts distribution to dealers and speed up vehicle sales and registrations.
The company aims to restart some manufacturing operations on Oct 1, although it warned it will take some time before it can return to full speed. BLOOMBERG
