Tata Motors [Get Quote] is seeking loans of about $3bn to fund its planned purchase of Ford Motor's Jaguar and Land Rover marques as the company moves closer to sealing the takeover, people familiar with the matter said.

India's second largest carmaker has assigned Citigroup and JPMorgan, its financial advisers on the acquisition, to arrange the financing with a range of other international and domestic banks taking part in the talks. The loan, which is expected to be mostly short-term bridge financing, is bigger than the anticipated purchase price of the deal, estimated at about $2bn.

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A person familiar with the deal said part of the loan could be used for working capital for Tata Motors, "but the jury is out" on the details. Tata's efforts to begin raising financing for the deal comes amid expectations that the transaction will be closed in the coming weeks once negotiators work through agreements covering engine supply, intellectual property and Jaguar and Land Rover's pension funds.

Tata is entering the market at a difficult time for acquisition financing, with companies facing higher prices in raising high-yield bonds for takeovers and banks keen to spread their exposure to such debt.

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Alongside Citigroup and JPMorgan, other banks interested in shouldering part of the loan include Standard Chartered, State Bank of India [Get Quote], Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Financial Group and Calyon, people familiar with the deal said.

They said details, such as how the refinancing of the bridge loan into longer-term instruments would be organised, were still being ironed out.

Standard & Poor's, the ratings agency, in January placed Tata's BB+ rating, which is one notch below investment grade, on "credit watch with negative implications". The move followed an announcement by Tata that it was the front runner in the battle for the Ford marques.

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S&P said the deal would be "a large-scale acquisition for Tata Motors" that could lower its credit rating profile.

Tata declined to comment on the fundraising plan. But people familiar with the deal said they expected the debt to be priced at about 2 percentage points above the London Interbank Offered Rate.