Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover readies £500 million supplier loan

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc is preparing a loan of as much as £500 million ($674 million) to support its suppliers after a cyberattack at the start of September brought the carmaker’s production facilities to a standstill, The Times reported.

The loan is being privately arranged and is separate to a £1.5 billion state-backed guarantee unveiled by government ministers last Saturday. That taxpayer-backed deal — designed to allow JLR to access funding from commercial banks — is yet to be signed off, The Times said, citing multiple sources.

A phased restart of JLR’s global production facilities is due to begin on Monday, although The Times said there was a broad consensus that the company is unlikely to be fully up and running again until after Christmas.

“As the controlled, phased restart of our operations continues, we are delivering solutions to support JLR’s suppliers which to date include establishing a dedicated supplier help desk, introducing a manual payment system to settle outstanding invoices and re-establishing automated supplier payment systems,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg News.

JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd., is a key part of the UK’s auto industry, with some small suppliers reliant on it for business. The government stepped in last weekend to avoid a wave of collapses in the supply chain, while the company has also sought to raise a further £2 billion from banks to shore up its finances.