Jaguar Land Rover pre-tax annual profits up 4.5%

Jaguar Land Rover has posted a pre-tax profit of £2.61bn, up 4.5% on the previous year.

Annual revenue at the luxury carmaker, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, rose 12.8% to £21.87bn.

Jaguar Land Rover had a tough start to the year, which was offset by the previous nine months.

While its sales were up 8.9% in the first three months of 2015, pre-tax profit dropped 31.3% as foreign currency costs weighed on its margins.

Jaguar Land Rover sold 470,523 vehicles to wholesale buyers and made 462,209 retail vehicle sales.

"Jaguar Land Rover has delivered five years of solid financial results, enabling us to invest in our long-term future," said Jaguar Land Rover's chief executive Ralf Speth.

It spent £3.15bn over the year on capital expenditure and research and development.

Rising annual profits at Jaguar Land Rover scaled back losses in other parts of its parent company, Tata Motors.

Pre-tax losses at Tata's standalone unit, which mostly comprises its Indian business, widened to 39.7bn rupees in the year to the end of March from 10bn rupees the year before.

Tata Motors reported a 15% rise in pre-tax profit for the year to the end of March. It made 217bn rupees (£2.2bn), compared with 188.7bn rupees in the previous year.

A 76bn-rupee tax charge eroded Tata Motors' net annual profit by 0.3% to 140bn rupees.