MG Rover

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Viggen

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Rest In Peace.

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MG Rover Officials Want to Break Co. Up
By JANE WARDELL
AP Business Writer

LONDON - Administrators for MG Rover Group said Friday they intend to break up the company, laying off 5,000 workers, in a bid to find buyers for different units after the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. made clear it was not interested in a joint venture.

Rover's downfall was precipitated by the failure of talks with China's state-owned SAIC, and renewing the negotiations had been seen as the best chance of saving the company - and the jobs of some 6,100 workers at its Longbridge factory in central England.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which was appointed to oversee the company's future after it closed its British factory and filed for a form of bankruptcy a week ago, said the prospects of selling Rover as a going concern - to SAIC or anyone else - had disappeared.

"We'll explore what we would describe as the breakup of the business, we will carry on with the interested parties who want to talk about pieces of the business," said PwC joint administrator Tony Lomas.

"At the same time, we will of course be mothballing the facility here," he said. "The auctioneer is not coming in and selling it all off next week, we will be mothballing this facility so that we do have time to go back to SAIC and ask them to tell us if they do have any interest and precisely what that interest is, recognizing that they have of course acquired some of the intellectual property."

Some intellectual property rights for Rover models were sold to SAIC in a 67 million pound deal last year, but the Chinese company does not hold the rights to produce the cars in Asia. Any third party who decided to buy Rover could acquire those rights in the future, PwC has said.

The British government, which has been heavily involved in discussions about the crisis - coming just weeks ahead of a general election - provided a 6.5 million pound ($12.2 million) emergency loan Sunday to pay Longbridge workers for a week.

Lomas said that the collapse of the deal with SAIC meant PwC could not ask for an extension of that loan, resulting in the loss of around 5,000 jobs immediately. Notices were to be sent to workers over the weekend, he said.

Rover had hoped the deal with SAIC would generate cash to allow it to introduce new models and stem the falling sales of its current makes. The company, which turned out 40 percent of the cars bought in Britain in the 1960s, has not produced a new model since 1998 and now holds only a 3 percent share of the market.
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I think that the MG-Rover story has just finished today :cry:

just so bad for all the people involved in that society :thumbsdown:
 
They are SOOO close to closing down in Australia..something like 14,000 jobs on the line :( Very sad news really..wonder if our JC will even care :lol: but still I feel
sad :(
My grandfather was once a representative for MG, Rover and British Leyland back in the day...
 
Pah, the Rover marque will live on in some shape or form. Remember that the British Motor industry has a long a proud history of Insolvency (Aston Martin anybody)
 
There actually going to try to save the MG brand, if anyone is willing to take them on
 
I think the British government offered loans to keep the operation running until a deal could be done with SAIC. With that deal gone, they have no choice but to wind operations down. Don't be surprised to see more generosity from the Blair government so close to the election.

Australian members may remember a couple of years ago a company called National Textiles went under with employees owed millions in entitlements. The government were very quick to set up a scheme that guaranteed the entitlements of workers who lost their jobs through insolvency. Why? One of the directors was the PM's brother...

There would still be some goodwill left in the marque due to it's history, maybe a larger maker will snap the badge up but not the car designs themselves?
 
Demented Freak said:
There would still be some goodwill left in the marque due to it's history, maybe a larger maker will snap the badge up but not the car designs themselves?
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Like who? I don't think any of the big manufacturers wants to assume MG's massive debt and shoddy image, especially GM who just paid off Fiat to prevent taking them over.
 
It's too bad, but you could see it coming long time. You just can't run a company with 3 outdated family cars and a much too expensive sportscar.
Still, I think in a while the brits will sell them for 1 pound to the Chinese and then they will still get what they want, but much cheaper.
 
now it'll go broke, but in 10 years or so, some other brand will decide there's place for another carbrand and revive it (i think)

like mercedes did with maybach

a pitty of the jobs though
 
I don't know how good cars MGs and Rovers were, but still this brakes my heart. :cry: I liked Rovers' interiors, rather comfy and luxurious, and the new 75 V8 was very good-looking. And MGs are very nice indeed. It's very bad that world loses one very traditional brand and so many people will lose their jobs...

Dr. Woo said:
Demented Freak said:
There would still be some goodwill left in the marque due to it's history, maybe a larger maker will snap the badge up but not the car designs themselves?
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Like who? I don't think any of the big manufacturers wants to assume MG's massive debt and shoddy image, especially GM who just paid off Fiat to prevent taking them over.
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Yea. BMW owned Rover, but wanted to get rid of it... I really can't come up with any other manufacturer that would like have Rover. It would be great though, if Ford would buy it, because it has already Jaguar... But as far as I'm concerned Ford has some financial problems, or am I badly mistaken? It's really a shame that no one is going to save Rover... But who wants a marque that doesn't sell? No one cares about anything else than profit today... It's sad, but that's the way it goes. :cry:
 
Dr. Woo said:
Like who? I don't think any of the big manufacturers wants to assume MG's massive debt and shoddy image, especially GM who just paid off Fiat to prevent taking them over.
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I agree that none of the big makers would take Rover over as a going concern. With operations being wound down, the Administrators will try and sell the logo/brand and the technical property of the company for whatever they can get to pay a dividend to the creditors.

I was thinking that maybe a smaller maker will pick up the marque for a pittance and relaunch it in a couple of years as a boutique brand instead to the massive operations the company was running.
 
Lederlieber said:
Yea. BMW owned Rover, but wanted to get rid of it... I really can't come up with any other manufacturer that would like have Rover. It would be great though, if Ford would buy it, because it has already Jaguar... But as far as I'm concerned Ford has some financial problems, or am I badly mistaken? It's really a shame that no one is going to save Rover... But who wants a marque that doesn't sell? No one cares about anything else than profit today... It's sad, but that's the way it goes. :cry:
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Ford still has Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover running losses, Volvo keeps them afloat for now, but especially Jaguar needs to start returning a problem.
If anyone will buy MG Rover ot will be the Chinese, no other big manufacturer has cash at the moment, save for BMW, but they just sold them.
 
MG's had some british flair to it, I liked a couple cars, even the MG ZT....

PS: I just remembered what JC said about the MG ZT "its like everything is going in slow motion while you are powersliding, when something happens, you can read the instruction manual, then analyze the situation and then react and you'll still be safe"... not exactly but somewhere on the lines of that.

btw, does that mean Rover is dead too?... hmm.. I wonder what alot of people who bought the new Rover75 here think, I actually advised one of my uncles friends to buy 1 because I said its like a mini Bentley Arnage... just hope he never knew this :lol:
 
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