| Company news | Jaguar & Land Rover | Sale completion |

The sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata has been completed by Ford. In a deal valued at £1.7 billion, the Indian firm now has full control of the two British companies.

Ford accepted an offer from Tata for the two British firms of £1.15 billion and the American car giant has agreed to pay £600 million into the pension fund of workers at Jaguar and Land Rover.

Ratan Tata, boss of Tata Motors, said: "This is a momentous time for all of us. Jaguar and Land Rover are two iconic British brands with worldwide growth prospects. We are looking forward to extending our full support to the Jaguar and Land Rover teams to realise their competitive potential."

Workers and union leaders at the two British companies have said they are happy with the new owner and look forward to a period of stability and new model development. It's thought that Ratan Tata is keen to expand Land Rover's activities in his native India, while he also determined to see Jaguar add an affordable open-top sports car to its range to challenge the Porsche Boxster and Mercedes-Benz SLK.

Alisdair Suttie - 3 Jun 2008