Tata Fuels Iveco Takeover With One of Asia's Largest Loans
- Tata Motors is raising a EUR 3.875 billion bridge loan to fund its planned acquisition of Iveco’s commercial vehicle business.
- The deal strengthens Tata’s foothold in Europe, nearly two decades after acquiring Jaguar Land Rover.
- M&A loan activity in Asia Pacific is booming, with this set to be one of the region’s largest deals in 2025.
Tata Motors Ltd. is arranging a EUR 3.875 billion ($4.5 billion) bridge loan to finance its planned purchase of Iveco Group’s commercial vehicle business. If completed, this will be one of the biggest financing deals in Asia this year.
The loan is a 12-month facility backed by a letter of support from Tata Sons Pvt., the holding company of the Tata Group. According to people familiar with the matter, the loan will carry an interest margin of 102.5 basis points over the benchmark Euribor rate. Morgan Stanley, its lending arm Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc., and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. are the underwriters of the loan.
Tata Motors has not given an official comment yet. The company intends to later refinance the bridge loan with a mix of equity and long-term debt over the next 12 to 18 months.
The deal is part of a growing wave of cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) loans in Asia Pacific. Excluding Japan, such loans have increased 70% this year to $31.3 billion, compared to the same period in 2024, according to Bloomberg data.
For Tata Motors, the acquisition will provide a strong entry into Europe’s commercial vehicle market, almost two decades after its high-profile purchase of Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. Iveco, based in Turin, had earlier agreed to split its operations, selling its defense unit to Leonardo SpA and transferring the rest of its business to Tata Motors in a deal worth about €3.8 billion.
Other major deals in the region include JD.com’s potential loan for its planned €2.2 billion takeover of German retailer Ceconomy, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s consideration of more than $10 billion in debt financing to buy Australian energy company Santos Ltd.
Tata’s takeover of Iveco is expected to close by April 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
