UK Backs £1.5bn Guarantee for JLR After Cyberattack

The UK government has announced a loan guarantee of up to £1.5 billion to Jaguar Land Rover to shore up cash and stabilise its supply chain after a severe cyberattack that forced production halts at plants in the UK, Slovakia, Brazil and India. The financing will be privately raised from a commercial bank and underwritten by UK Export Finance/Export Development Guarantee and is to be repaid over five years. The shutdown paused roughly 1,000 UK cars a day and left many small and medium suppliers critically short of cash, prompting ministerial visits and promises to protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and beyond. JLR has begun a phased restart of some IT systems and increased invoicing capacity to clear a backlog of supplier payments, but full vehicle production remains suspended until at least October 1 and the group may face large, possibly uninsured losses. The intervention is intended to give certainty to the supply chain while final details are worked out, even as critics say ministers acted too slowly and warn of wider cyber risks to British industry.