MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess who

[JBsZ06]

Nanjing buys MG Rover

July 23, 2005







Administrators for MG Rover Group Ltd. said Friday that the collapsed British automaker has been bought by Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automotive.


PricewaterhouseCoopers, which took over administration of Rover when the automaker filed for bankruptcy in April, said Nanjing had bought the assets of both MG Rover Group and its engine-producing subsidiary Powertrain Ltd.

 

[aeronca65t]

I suppose it had to happen....
The buyers (Nanjing) will do some manufacturing and engineering in Britain, but not as much as the the previous bidder (SAIC) had promised. Nanjing is owned by the Chinese govenrment. Here's more info:

MG ROVER was sold last night to Nanjing, China’s oldest carmaker and the bidder that had committed the least to British car manufacturing, for close to £60 million.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rover’s administrator, said that it had chosen Nanjing over the rival suitors, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and David James, the company troubleshooter, because its bid was higher and had fewer conditions attached.
Tony Lomas, a PwC partner, said: “It was quite simple. Nanjing made the best offer. It was certain, it was unconditional and it was the best price.” But the Transport and General Workers Union said that a sale to Nanjing looked to be bad for British jobs.
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the TGWU, said: “There is no doubt in our mind that on first viewing the SAIC proposals appeared to suggest more jobs for Britain. It’s disappointing, therefore, that the administrators have not seen fit to allow SAIC to complete its bidding process.”
Mr Woodley had lobbied on behalf of the SAIC consortium, which had teamed up with Martin Leach, a former head of Ford Europe.
The SAIC bid would have seen up to 1,600 engineers being employed on new projects and hundreds more workers involved in making new vehicles based on the designs produced at Longbridge.
Nanjing, which is owned by the Chinese Government, has teamed up with Arup, the British engineering consultancy. Although it has promised to revive car production at Longbridge, with the manufacture of a range of niche models, the TGWU fears that Nanjing will relocate a substantial portion of its production to China.
A spokesman for Nanjing said: “The acquisition of MG Rover gives Nanjing the opportunity to establish a presence in Europe, creating high-value MG cars in the UK, complemented by volume production of a range of vehicles in China.”

 

[Bruce Bowker]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

Might not be a bad idea if we all learn Chinese soon. They will be the next super power if we keep selling to them. Did they buy Maytag (I think) yet?

 

[jcatnite]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

Actually Whirlpool ended up offering more for Maytag than the Chinese company did. Not really sure how it will all shake out. The think that worries me more is they are trying to buy Unocal. Really don't want to see those assets leave my country...
JC

 

[sultanoswing]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

Not that any of this affects our existing classics, mind... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[dklawson]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

Out of curiosity... who currently owns the rights to the parts business for our cars? Does Unipart still exist and if so, who owns them? What about Heritage, who owns the dies for the sheet metal? I know Ford, BMW, and GM all have their piece of the pie as far as names and marques, but who has the parts business?

 

[Guest]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

Since BMW still owns the MG marque can the Chinese produce MGs or just Rover cars? I suspose BMW could license the MG marque to the Chinese. I would prefer a British MG but support anything that keeps the marque alive. I do not understand why BMW does not take advantage of the situation and produce a MG roadster. I read where they are considering reviving the Triumph, why not the MG? As for parts, the Chinese are already manufacturing parts in Taiwan.

 

[Radford]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

[ QUOTE ]
Since BMW still owns the MG marque can the Chinese produce MGs or just Rover cars?

[/ QUOTE ] Actually I think the Phoenix Group owned the MG name, the Rover name stayed with BMW.

 

[Bawanadic]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

I was reading in yesterday's WSJ that the deal is hardly sound.
Seems the little known prior arrangements with Toyota/Rover and other SIAC deals may put the Kibosh on the whole sale.
The article is online subscribers only but I can type in the details /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif if anyone is interested.

 

[Nunyas]

Re: MG sold ! If this doesn't beat all! UGH! Guess

this whole process is like a yo-yo... you'd think all the news agencies would at the very least get their info correct before announcing stuff like this. "They're sold! no wait, they're not sold yet... They're SOLD!! Oh, no wait... not yet..." It's been like this since January.... heh