In the latest instalment of the MG Rover saga, the BBC on Monday, citing the country’s industry minister, reported that Iran’s car-makers are no longer in the running for the stricken UK group.
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The broadcaster reported that Eshagh Jahangiri had said in Iranian press interviews that MG Rover’s sale to China of the rights to its 25 and 75 models meant it was no longer attractive.
“Iran has cancelled [its interest in] buying Rover,” he reportedly told the Donya-ye Eqtesad newspaper.
The BBC said administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are still trying to see if a bid for the whole firm can be accepted, although they have had 350 expressions of interest for parts of the firm.
Three Iranian car-makers – Saipa, Khodro, and Dastaan – had been thought to be possible bidders and, on Friday, a spokesman for the Iranian embassy in London told the BBC that the government firm Khodro had “expressed an interest” in Rover.
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By GlobalData“We are studying the possibility for Khodro to take over Rover and its factory in the UK,” a spokesman from the economic section of the Iranian embassy in London reportedly said at the time.
But on Sunday, the BBC added, Jahangiri said the deal was off.
Since China [in the form of Shanghai Automotive] already owns the rights to the Rover 25 and 75 – cars which Iran had been interested in building in the UK – there was little point in making a bid, he said, according to the report, adding that MG Rover’s plant at Longbridge was not attractive enough without the car rights, and that the Iranians did not need its machinery.
The BBC noted that an offer from privately owned Dastaan – due to take 2,000 cars from Rover before it collapsed – is still theoretically possible, since the firm is privately owned.
Russian firm, Ruspromavto, has already denied rumours that it could be interested in buying MG Rover, the BBC report added.
