An Arab-backed consortium bidding for MG Rover has promised that it will employ at least 4,000 people at Longbridge, the stricken car group’s Birmingham plant, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
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The Triple A consortium is led by Monaco-based car-industry analyst Krish Bhaskar, who reportedly said his plans for the group envisaged 3,000 production staff at Longbridge and 1,000 research and development engineers.
The Sunday Times noted that MG Rover, which collapsed into administration just before the general election last month, employed 6,100 people, of whom more than 5,000 have been laid off.
Bhaskar told the paper that Longbridge would eventually make 200,000 cars a year – he claims to have considerable Middle Eastern backing, via American-Arabian Investment & Development Holding, a US-based company and the group is understood to have offered MG Rover’s administrators, Price Waterhouse Coopers, £65 million for the business, and to have paid a £5 million deposit.
But the Sunday Times said it was unclear at the weekend whether PWC regarded the Triple A offer as serious – the administrators reportedly said last week they had received two “credible” bids, but a spokesman could not on Saturday say whether Triple A was included in this list, or whether it had provided the proof of funding required.
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By GlobalDataThe paper noted that PWC will provide an update to the company’s creditors, who are owed about £1.4 billion, at a first creditors’ meeting on Friday.
The Sunday Times added that potential bidders have this week met Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), the Chinese group that withdrew from a deal to buy Rover earlier this year, to sound out the possibility of co-operation – SAIC now owns the rights to two Rover models, the 25 and 75, and to its engine designs.
The paper noted that PWC has said it may challenge the validity of SAIC’s claim to exclusive use of the designs in order to make the remaining UK businesses more attractive to buyers, but the Chinese group believes that its claims are watertight.
