By midday today (March 26) Indian giant Tata will officially own the British brands Jaguar and Land Rover at an estimated cost of £1 billion for the pair.

Jaguar and Land Rover, formerly owned by Ford, collectively employ around 16,000 at sites in the West Midlands and Merseyside. Negotiations with the Indian manufacturer have been ongoing since June last year.

Tata has existing factories in India but it assures UK employees that it has no plans to relocate them and will even continue the current five-year investment plan that Ford started. Ford will also invest £300 million in the company pension scheme before Tata takes over.

Land Rover has been one of Ford's more successful brands since it bought the company for £2.73 billion in 2000, but Tata has its work cut out for it with Jaguar, as the company has not made a profit since it was bought by Ford in 1989.