Several cost reducing steps have been started at Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR), including bringing down the manpower, levying a salary freeze and obtaining parts from markets that provide cheaper options.

These steps have left the business in better shape at the end of the first quarter, as compared to the condition in the March 2009 quarter. But in spite of this, JLR has accounted a loss of about 64 million pounds, in the first quarter of the current quarter, on incomes of 1.12 billion pounds.

With demand in the key US and European markets still to recover, vehicle volumes were smaller during the quarter. Dealer volumes witnessed a sharp fall of 52% y-o-y while retail volumes were lower by 35% y-o-y, as the company adjusted output with requirement.

JLR has access bank finance to the tune of 100 million pounds and the auto major should get another 340 million pounds limit shortly. With the rationalization steps getting in cost savings, analysts await JLR to break even in the fiscal 2010-11.

The losses could be cut back to about 200 million this fiscal, as against a loss of 307 million pounds in the year 2008-09. With a consolidated debt of just under Rs 21,000 crore, Tata Motors' balance sheet stays extremely furnished.

The company has sold stake in subordinates and in group companies.

The sale of Tata Steel shares brought it Rs 320 crore. With demand for commercial vehicles looking up in the home market, sales for Tata Motors in the present fiscal could be close to Rs 71,000 crore. However, with the JLR business still poor, it may post fringy losses. Shares of Tata Motors, on Monday, closed at Rs 489.35, down 0.06% or Rs 0.30. The total quantity of shares traded was 1,452,554 on the BSE.