James set to make bid for Rover

A consortium led by businessman David James has expressed an intent to bid for MG Rover within the next 48 hours.

Earlier this month, Mr James outlined a rescue plan for the beleaguered car manufacturer, but his initial bid collapsed when Chinese firm, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) refused to take on certain Rover assets and companies.

Mr James’s blueprint for the future of MG Rover involved the division of the company’s assets, with the MG brand becoming a separate spin-off company, to capitalise on the marque’s strong standing. SAIC’s role in the break-up of the company would be to acquire Rover’s engine-making division, Powertrain, with an undertaking to buy Rover’s remaining assets in a year’s time, in return for access to the UK car market.

However, SAIC declined to commit to the plan, and ruled itself out from involvement in a bid. Without SAIC’s cooperation, Mr James’ consortium were unable to raise the funds needed to purchase MG Rover.

Speaking today, Mr James said that his consortium now had the funds in place to launch a bid for the carmaker – but that the issue of a buyer for Powertrain still remained an integral part of the final deal.

He also reaffirmed his commitment to continuing operations at Rover’s Longbridge plant, albeit on a small-scale. He added: “We don’t believe in the mass production concept. We believe in niche products, and this is exactly where we are going with our bid.”

The news follows yesterday’s announcement that SAIC has submitted a bid in the region of £60 million, in partnership with Ford of Europe’s former head of operations, Martin Leach. Another Chinese company, Nanjing Automobile, has also registered an interest in MG Rover, which went bankrupt earlier this year. It is thought that both bids from the Asian firms would entail some proportion of Rover’s assets being exported to China, although both bids have outlined an intention to retain a degree of manufacturing activity at the Longbridge plant.

Rovers' administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers have set an October deadline for concluding a deal, but it is likely that a decision on a sale will come within the next ten days.

(CL/SP)