Tata Motors will be named on Dec. 21 as the winning bidder in the auction for Jaguar and Land Rover, according to a report in Britain's Birmingham Post newspaper. Tata will pay £1 billion, or about $2 billion, for the two Ford Motor luxury auto brands, said the newspaper, which is based near Jaguar and Land Rover's home in the British midlands. Ford spokesman Mark Truby said the company plans no announcements regarding a sale of the prestigious British brands. He said the U.S. automaker is still on track to announce the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover early next year. Tata is vying with another Indian automaker, Mahindra & Mahindra , as well as U.S. private equity firm One Equity Partners, for the units. Earlier this month those companies had submitted bids that ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion, said one person involved in the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are confidential. […]

India's biggest discount carrier, Deccan, will merge with upmarket Kingfisher Airlines to create the nation's biggest domestic airline, officials said. The firm formed by the merger next year will keep the name Kingfisher, the flagship brand of Vijay Mallya's UB Group, officials from the two carriers said after a four-hour meeting. “The merger will bring about synergies across the board and lower the cost of operating both the airlines,” Deccan founder G R Gopinath told a Press conference in this southern Indian city where his airline is based. A merger would marry two airlines that had seemed unlikely bedfellows, with Gopinath earlier this year likening the flamboyant Mallya to someone from Venus and himself to a Martian who would never be able to do a deal. That was before he sold a 26 per cent stake in June to UB Group, accepting a 5.5-billion-rupee ($139-million) lifeline to keep his fleet in the skies as Deccan Aviation reeled under heavy losses. […]