A kicking from Jaguar

Tata ma chance, tata ma millions was the cry that prompted the terminally bad at maths to rush to get stuck into the lottery, with about as little success as the disappearing billions at Tata Motors.

India’s largest car manufacturer shocked the market and received a 30% kicking in the share price when it announced a loss of a perky $3.8bn in the quarter to December, a number that sticks it straight into gold medal position for the biggest loss in Indian corporate history.

The reason for this bloodbath was the declining fortune of Britain’s largest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which Tata bought from Ford for $2.3bn in 2008. The purchase of such an iconic British brand was touted at the time as a healthy gesture of the two-fingered variety to India’s former colonial overlords, and its latest book value of $7.8bn still represents a more than healthy return on the original investment, but a $4bn write-down reflects the pressure that JLR is feeling on a number of fronts.

Sales in China were down 40% year on year as a result of weaknesses in its dealer network and the impact of the trade war with the US, and its reliance on diesel engines didn’t help due to environmental concerns and the fallout from the Volkswagen emissions scandal. JLR manufactures largely in the UK, and is particularly vulnerable to whatever chaos finally emerges from the Brexit mess.

In its domestic market, Tata’s

Nano, the world’s cheapest car, failed to ignite consumer interest, and problems that had been cushioned by the success of JLR are now all too apparent.