Indian conglomerate Tata - new owner of Jaguar and Land Rover - could soon derive more revenue from its UK-based businesses than it does from its domestic operations.

In addition to the luxury car marques, Tata also owns London-based Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus Group - formerly British Steel - and Tetley Tea.

The group has yet to release its figures for the end of the last financial year, which ended on Monday.

However, estimates are that the contribution of Corus together with Jaguar and Land Rover could account for £18.2 billion which, if true, would compare with the £14.5 billion reported by Tata for the financial year ended March 2007.

This equates to 65 per cent of Tata's sales coming from its international businesses - an increase of around 40 per cent, largely due to the contribution of Corus, which Tata acquired in a £6.7 billion deal last year.

This time next year analysts will have some idea how much the two car brands might be capable of contributing to the business, although whether the integration will be complete by then remains to be seen as the £1.15 billion deal with Ford has yet to be concluded and is unlikely to be so for another few months.

Whatever the figures are, it is now undeniable that the UK is Tata's largest overseas market and that the European market as a whole is now close to matching that of India itself.

The figures bear testament to Tata's policy over the past few years of acquiring major brands that can add significant value to group performance.

Corus is thought to generate around £11 billion in revenue and while Ford has not revealed how much was generated by Jaguar and Land Rover, estimates are that it could have an annual turnover of around £7 billion.

Tata's plan for the new acquisitions (which includes Corus) is to maximise profitability because while the UK businesses are strong revenue generators, its Indian businesses make more profit.

In the financial year ended March 2007, the Tata group made an overall profit of £2.8 billion. Corus's profit amounted to £229 million.

To help improve profitability, Tata is said to be considering moving some of its Indian-based managers to the UK to see if their knowledge will be of use to Corus. The same could happen at Jaguar and Land Rover in due course if the two companies fail to deliver the performance hoped for.

Critics are waiting to see how the company handles the automotive companies, especially because its experience in the luxury sector is limited and in automotive terms, is virtually non-existent.