Surge In Land Rover Sales Lifts Tata Profits

Soaring sales at Jaguar Land Rover have helped Tata, the carmaker's Indian owners, to a huge rise in profits.

Sales of the British luxury cars in the three months to the end of December rose by almost 37%, largely thanks to the launch of the new Range Rover Evoque in the summer.

Some 32,000 of the sports model, nicknamed the Baby Range Rover, were sold by the end of last year, boosting Jaguar Land Rover's quarterly revenue by almost 41%, and taking pre-tax profit to £559m - an increase of about 86%.

Pre-tax profits for the same period the previous year were £300m.

Demand for the cars was particularly strong in Russia and China, accouting for 22.4% of sales during the quarter.

Tata Motor's chief financial officer C.R. Ramakrishnan said strong sales at JLR reflected a better product and market mix.

The results smashed forecasts and continue an extraordinary turnaround in fortunes at the once-struggling carmaker.

Tata, which also owns the ultra-cheap Nano car, bought JLR in 2008 from Ford Motor Group for £1.5bn.

But a year later the Indian conglomerate went cap-in-hand to the Labour government for a £300m hand-out to keep the business going.

The bid was turned down and Tata made its own emergency cash injection, going on to turn JLR, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, into its main profit driver.

Net profits at Tata were up 40.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to £440m. Analysts had forecast a rise to £337m.

Demand for luxury cars in emerging markets more than compensated for waning sales in India.

Deven Choksey, chief executive of KR Choksey Shares and Securities, said: "JLR has shown improvements in volumes and margins in ways that were way beyond what the market expected."