Ford to confirm sale to Tata

LONDON (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co is expected to confirm the sale of its British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors for over $2 billion later on Wednesday. Ford will pay off around 300 million pounds ($597.7 million) of pension deficits at Jaguar and Land Rover as part of the deal, which was signed late on Tuesday, according to sources close to the deal.

Ford plans to publicly announce the transaction in New York at 0800 EST, said another source. Ford declined to comment on Tuesday, adding "our first responsibility is to communicate with our employees." The sale had been expected at the start of this month, but it was delayed as the two firms discussed their future relationship, including technology sharing and Ford's provision of engines and body parts for the two brands. Tata, India's top vehicle maker, has been in talks with Ford since it was chosen as the frontrunner tobuy Jaguar and Land Rover a few days into 2008. Tata is pursuing the deal to gain a substantial foothold outside India. But analysts have questioned how Tata will incorporate the luxury brands into its stable of sturdy.

trucks and functional passenger cars, including the Nano, the world's cheapest car which it unveiled in January. While Land Rover has generated three years of record sales with its SUVs, the fit of Jaguar is far less clear. Ford, which lost $2.7 billion in 2007 and $12.6 billion in 2006, is selling off Jaguar and Land Rover to focus on turning around its loss-making operations in North America.

The sale will include a commitment by Tata to continue buying engines from Ford, according to unions. All Jaguar and Land Rover's petrol engines are built in a Ford plant in South Wales, supporting hundreds of jobs there. Diesel engines come from Ford's factory in Dagenham, east London.

One of the sources knocked down reports on Indian television earlier on Tuesday that the deal had been closed for $2.65 billion. "That figure of $2.65 billion is highly unlikely," one source close to the deal said of the report on news channel NDTV Profit. "You have to come south from that by quite a bit."

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