China's oldest carmaker buys MG Rover for £60 million

[ahsingjai]

China's oldest carmaker buys MG Rover for £60 million
By Tom Bawden
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/ar...704922,00.html

MG ROVER was sold last night to Nanjing, China’s oldest carmaker and the bidder that had committed the least to British car manufacturing, for close to £60 million.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rover’s administrator, said that it had chosen Nanjing over the rival suitors, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and David James, the company troubleshooter, because its bid was higher and had fewer conditions attached.

Tony Lomas, a PwC partner, said: “It was quite simple. Nanjing made the best offer. It was certain, it was unconditional and it was the best price.” But the Transport and General Workers Union said that a sale to Nanjing looked to be bad for British jobs.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the TGWU, said: “There is no doubt in our mind that on first viewing the SAIC proposals appeared to suggest more jobs for Britain. It’s disappointing, therefore, that the administrators have not seen fit to allow SAIC to complete its bidding process.”

Mr Woodley had lobbied on behalf of the SAIC consortium, which had teamed up with Martin Leach, a former head of Ford Europe.

The SAIC bid would have seen up to 1,600 engineers being employed on new projects and hundreds more workers involved in making new vehicles based on the designs produced at Longbridge.

Nanjing, which is owned by the Chinese Government, has teamed up with Arup, the British engineering consultancy. Although it has promised to revive car production at Longbridge, with the manufacture of a range of niche models, the TGWU fears that Nanjing will relocate a substantial portion of its production to China.

A spokesman for Nanjing said: “The acquisition of MG Rover gives Nanjing the opportunity to establish a presence in Europe, creating high-value MG cars in the UK, complemented by volume production of a range of vehicles in China.”

[yoMAMA]

Nanjing was the site of the Nanjing treaty, after the first opium war and China's first unequal treaty.

Ironic, isn't it?

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Interesting to see PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) mentioned in an article even though they're pretty well known. My brother's a consultant there.

[mrcfo]

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

Nanjing was the site of the Nanjing treaty, after the first opium war and China's first unequal treaty.

Ironic, isn't it?

Yeah well karma isnt it? A Chinese proverb, 風水輪流轉