Ford Motor Co. selected Tata Motors Ltd. as the preferred bidder for Jaguar and Land Rover, putting India’s largest truckmaker in a position to take over two iconic British luxury auto brands, Bloomberg News reported.

Tata and the U.S. automaker will hold “further substantive discussions,” Ford Executive Vice President Lewis Booth said in a statement. Ford may fetch as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.98 billion) from a sale, said Stephen Pope of Cantor Fitzgerald in London, according to Bloomberg.

Buying Jaguar and Land Rover, which date back to Britain’s colonial era, would give Tata a presence outside Asia and provide access to new technology. Ford wants to sell the brands to focus on its money-losing North American business, Bloomberg said.