Indian car giant Tata Motors posts loss

MUMBAI: Losses at Jaguar Land Rover and a one-off payment to close a subsidiary dragged India's Tata Motors into the red for the three months to September, the company said Wednesday.

The Indian car giant reported a consolidated net loss of 10.49 billion rupees ($141.9 million) for the second quarter as demand weakened for its luxury cars across China and Europe.

The company had reported a net profit of 24.83 billion rupees for the same period a year earlier.

JLR sales dropped 13.2 percent worldwide, largely due to higher import duties in China as it engages in an aggressive tariffs war with the United States.

"In the latest quarterly period, we continued to see more challenging market conditions," JLR Chief Executive Ralf Speth said in a statement.

"Our results were undermined by slowing demand in China, along with continued uncertainty in Europe over diesel," he added.

Earnings were also hit by a 4.37-billion-rupee payment to close the operations of a local subsidiary in Thailand.

Tata Motors' total revenues fell 10.9 percent.

The car maker said it would cut costs by £500 million ($639 million) over the next 18 months to help boost coffers.

"To weather... (a) volatile external scenario, we have launched a comprehensive turnaround plan to significantly improve our free cash flows and profitability," Tata Motors chairman N Chandrasekaran said.

Shares of Tata Motors, which is part of the sprawling Tata conglomerate, ranging from tea to steel, rose 0.76 percent on the Bombay stock exchange before the earnings announcement.