Jaguar Land Rover says its recovery is underway

Ailing Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced it has returned to profit in the first three months of 2019 despite a significant sales slump in China.

In a statement issued overnight to markets, JLR said it had posted a net income of £119 million ($A220m) – the first profit since the struggling car-maker shocked markets by announcing huge losses earlier this year.

Despite the modest boost to JLR coffers, the British car-maker says in the full year to March it still posted a loss of £3.6 billion ($A5.6b) after admitting sales in the Chinese market had plummeted by 46 per cent in April.

Since then, persistent rumours have surrounded JLR that its cash-strapped parent Tata Group was considering offloading it to the PSA Group.

Speaking to reporters, Tata's chief financial officer, PB Balaji, claimed that the latest return to profit was only just the beginning of JLR's bounce back and that growth in China would return in "a quarter from now".

Balaji also stressed that selling JLR was not on the cards and that the car-maker had "managed to stabilise" in China after removing surplus inventory.

Analysts have highlighted that it's not just JLR that is currently struggling with growth in a turbulent Chinese market, which is currently enduring the longest slump in its history, but blamed bosses for failing to protect the British brand from the shift away from diesel in Europe.

The UK's current Brexit-related turmoil has also been blamed for JLR's dramatic decline and quality issues are also claimed to be a contributing factor.

Currently, JLR inhabits the two bottom slots in the US JD Power quality survey with Jaguar cars claimed to suffer 148 problems per 100 vehicles.

If you think that sounds bad, Land Rover beats it, racking up an incredible 160 issues.

To put those in context, the leading Genesis brand had 68 problems per 100 cars.

Frequently described as the 'jewel' in Tata's crown, even with its problems Jaguar Land Rover remains the most valuable brand the Indian industrialist owns. Recently, the car-maker was valued at $6.2 billion ($A9b).