China’s Nanjing Automobile is unlikely to sell its MG Rover brand to British businessman David James, despite UK media reports that he wants to buy it, a source told Reuters on Friday.
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The news agency noted that several British newspapers had said in their Friday editions that James’ Kimber consortium wanted to build two-seater cars using the MG Rover brand and move manufacturing away from the former UK carmaker’s site at Longbridge near Birmingham to Coventry.
But a source “familiar with the situation” told Reuters that no deal between James and Nanjing was imminent and added the Chinese carmaker still planned to resume production at Longbridge.
Earlier this week, just-auto reported that Nanjing Auto had been given six months extra to decide on agreeing terms for a 30-year lease of 105 acres of the 450-acre Longbridge site from the property developer that owns it.
Nanjing had been expected eventually to produce as many as 50,000 cars a year at the Midlands site, and around a further 200,000 a year in China, but has spent much of the past six months ‘lifting and shifting’ plant equipment to transport it to China.
Consequently, many industry observers are sceptical about the manufacturer’s Longbridge plans.
