MG Rover chairman John Towers has said the joint venture struck with a leading Chinese car company could lead to MGs and Rovers being sold in America for the first time in 14 years.
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According to the Daily Telegraph, Towers also said that jobs at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham would be safeguarded, but the facility would come to be seen as the European manufacturing plant of the joint venture.
He reportedly said that a move into America was now an option for the joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), in which MG Rover will have a minority stake. MG Rover stopped selling cars in the US under the ‘Sterling’ brand in 1990.
“That is a valid item of value – you do get a lot of inquiries through the MG Rover brand name,” Towers told the Daily Telegraph. “We get countless letters asking when we are going back to the US again. As part of the deal, it is an item of value that does not go unnoticed.”
Towers reportedly said the size of MG Rover’s stake in the joint venture had not yet been determined – the deal is due to be agreed in February. However, he said it will be based in China and run jointly by MG Rover and SAIC. Four new models are planned.
He told the Daily Telegraph: “To get to this point, which has not been easy, we have had to give a lot. We have brokered MG Rover’s name to give SAIC the flexibility to move forward and to develop their strategy.”
Towers told the paper a team of 40 product engineers and purchasing experts were working from a new office in Shanghai to get the joint venture up and running – the deal was not a “takeover” of MG Rover; SAIC was not being given a stake in the car company or its parent, Phoenix Venture Holdings.
According to the paper, Towers reiterated that the jobs of the 6,100 workers at Longbridge were safe though he declined to give long-term guarantees – he did say that shipping cars long distance could be uneconomic.
Pointing to other Japanese car markers’ presence in Britain, he reportedly said: “Longbridge is the European base for this business.”
The Daily Telegraph noted that, unlike SAIC’s other joint ventures, where it makes cars under licence in China for GM and Volkswagen, SAIC will be able to make and sell the cars – Towers reportedly said GM in China had been “very supportive”.
Towers told the paper he was confident the deal, which was nine months in negotiation, would succeed. He said: “There is a lot of financial and structural input to this process. We can be confident we are doing a deal.”
