"We certainly have an interest in that," Tata said in an CNN-IBN television interview, excerpts of which were released Friday.
Tata Motors previously declined to comment on reports that the group has bid to buy the two British brands. The purchase of the luxury nameplates would increase the global reach of Tata Motors, India's third-biggest carmaker, and curb its reliance on the domestic market, Tata said in the interview.
Ford's executive vice president, Lewis Booth, supervising the U.S. automaker's efforts to sell the two brands, said last week that the company would not announce a sale until after September. Ford received preliminary proposals last month and is continuing discussions with bidders it did not identify.
The U.S. automaker wants to complete a sale of Jaguar and Land Rover toward the end of this year or early next year, Booth has said. Ford paid $2.5 billion for Jaguar in 1989 and $2.73 billion for Land Rover in 2000.
Ford received preliminary offers from private-equity firms including TPG, Cerberus Capital Management, Ripplewood Holdings and One Equity Partners, according to people familiar with the proposals. Also bidding are two Indian automakers, including Mahindra & Mahindra, the people said.
Jaguar's main British unit cut its pretax loss in half in 2006 to £258 million, or $519.7 million, from £535 million a year earlier, while Land Rover earned about £100 million, reports said. The combined pretax loss for the brands were £159 million, the report said.
