Currently reading: Jaguar Land Rover loses £673m

Company reports highlight UK downturn

Jaguar and Land Rover have lost a combined £673.4 million in the past year - a sharp drop from its £641.5m profit in the same period last year.

Furthermore, the "total recognised losses" at JLR - including actuarial and other losses related to the firms' pension schemes - reached nearly £1.2bn last year.

However, a JLR spokesman stressed that the accounts relate to its UK operations only, and added that the previous financial year's results had been boosted by a sharp rise in its Aston Martin shares, which have now been sold on.

The news comes as JLR and their owner, India's Tata Motors, strive to conclude long-running and increasingly acrimonious talks with the British government over short-term financing.

According to reports in the Financial Times newspaper the government says it is only prepared to offer JLR a guarantee for a £175m commercial bridging loan, which is significantly less than the £500m that Tata has been seeking.

Furthermore, Tata is pushing for a 12-month term for the loan, while the government wants a six-month deal.

However, the government is believed to have softened its demands to have representation on JLR's board in exchange for providing the loan guarantees.

Tata has pumped more than £1bn into JLR to cover losses since the financial crisis began.

Tata bought JLR from Ford for $2.3bn (£1.4bn) last year, just as sales of large and luxury vehicles began to plummet.

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