(Source:  Reuters, Times of India, SIFY, Bloomberg)

• Tata FY09 loss $520 million, first in eight years
• Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit 10-mth loss of 306 mln pounds
• Warns of more job cuts, plant closures
• Shares end 0.8 pct higher in Mumbai market

Image Courtesy: Apture - The Tata top and Jaguar auto company logos Top Indian vehicle

India’s Tata Motors said Friday that it suffered a loss of 25.05 billion rupees ($521.8 million) after taxes in the past fiscal year as the global meltdown exacted a toll on the auto industry worldwide.

The loss came after a year in which the company recorded a profit of 21.67 billion rupees ($451 million) after taxes, the company said in a statement.

Tata Motors reported a consolidated gross revenue of 741.51 billion rupees ($15.44 billion) in 2008-2009. India’s financial year runs from April 1 to March 31.  About 120,000 Land Rovers were sold in the 10 months ended March 31, down from 198,000 a year ago, Chief Financial Officer C. Ramakrishnan told reporters today. Jaguar sales fell to 47,000 in the same period from 48,800.

“The consolidated financial performance of the company is not comparable to 2007-08 on account of the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover in June 2008,” it said.

The firm, which controls 60 percent of the world’s fifth-biggest truck and bus market, said it was readying for major belt-tightening, including deferring capital expenditure wherever possible to keep a tight rein on costs.

The company said sales across the group were hit by the global economic downturn, which saw demand and vehicle financing dry up.

“The company has actively responded to this changed situation by taking a number of urgent and long-term measures. These include cutting costs drastically and working on a plan of substantial cost reduction, aligning production with demand and tight control over cash flows,” the company said in a statement.

“At this moment, things are beginning to improve only marginally. There may be more job losses and more shut downs of plants if required,” Sky News quoted Tata Motors vice-chairman, Ravi Kant, as saying.

Tata Motors said the Jaguar Land Rover unit it bought in 2008 posted a loss after tax of 306 million pounds ($504 million) in the 10 months of the fiscal year to March 2009 as a brutal global recession crippled car sales, primarily luxury and sports utility vehicles.

Tata Motors is continuing talks with the U.K government to secure a guarantee for a 340-million pound loan approved by the European Investment Bank for Jaguar and Land Rover, Kant said. It has the option to get the guarantee from private banks, he said.

JLR sold 167,000 vehicles for the 10 months to March, compared with 246,000 in the same period the year before.

The economic crisis has sent two of America’s three big carmakers into receivership and is set to plunge Toyota Motor Corp deeper into loss.