Jaguar and Land Rover recorded a loss of $383 million after tax in the first six months of the year, according to a rights issue prospectus filed by Tata Motors.

The Indian company bought the luxury marques earlier this year from Ford for 1.15 billion.

The detail of just how much money the two carmakers are loosing will cement concerns that Tata, India's largest truck maker, will have its work cut out in making its first foray into the luxury car market a success.

A spokesman for Tata said that the loss detailed in the most recent accounts for Land Rover and Jaguar did not give the best picture of the units' performance.

It pointed to figures showing that the earnings before interest and tax of the two carmakers combined was $688 million in the six months to the end of June.

Tata's purchase of Land Rover and Jaguar has, however, already faced several serious hurdles.

Last month, Tata Motors was forced to scrap a planned 30 billion rupee (£352 million) rights issue that was to help finance the group's acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar.

It cancelled the convertible preference share issue after its share price plummeted. It now intends to sell assets instead to raise the cash, which is needed to refinance an expensive bridge loan.

However, plans for two other rights issues to raise a further 42 billion rupees remain intact. The prospectus for those issues, from the Indian bank JM Financial, contained the breakdown of Jaguar and Land Rover's performance.

Meanwhile, sales of Land Rovers are sharply down in important markets, such as the US, in the wake of the sub-prime crisis.

There are also concerns that the surging costs of raw materials may scramble Tata's plans to reap profits from its 1,250 Nano, which will be the world's cheapest car when it goes on sale this autumn in India.

The construction of the factory being built to produce the Nano has ground to a halt after being besieged by thousands of demonstrators.

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