Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) has said it will sign an agreement with Martin Leach, ex-head of Ford of Europe, to rescue MG Rover, the BBC reported on Thursday.
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SAIC and Leach will put in a bid to administrator PricewaterhouseCooopers to buy Rover’s assets, the broadcaster said.
The proposal reportedly involves a substantial amount of car making at Longbridge and a nearby research centre for new models.
The BBC noted that Nanjing Automobile of China submitted a bid to PwC on Wednesday involving car making at Longbridge.
The two proposals are considered to be the frontrunners among the expressions of interest in Rover’s assets, the report noted.
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By GlobalDataThe BBC said the SAIC-Leach plan could see the Rover 75 and sports cars built at Rover’s Longbridge factory – the plan would mean jobs for 1,300-1,600 engineers and designers on a new technology site at Longbridge.
SAIC reportedly is expected to produce engines at a plant in China, using machinery from Longbridge.
“In terms of the creditors, I would have thought [PwC] might be as well to keep [Rover] going,” Tom Donnelly, director of the motor industry observatory at Coventry Business School, told the BBC’s Today programme on Thursday. “If they don’t get a deal, Rover will have to be sold off piecemeal and creditors will get virtually nothing.”
The BBC noted that several past attempts to rescue Rover involving SAIC have fallen through.
