MG Rover sells TF to SAIC ‘by mistake’ |
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Published
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Sun, 19 Jun 2005 12:35
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The MG Rover tragedy continued to get worse as it was revealed that the MG TF sports car, a key asset of the beleaguered company, was sold to a Chinese firm SAIC by 'accident.' This news has thrown the sale of the erstwhile manufacturing giant into disarray.
The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation brought out the firm last year in a deal worth about £67 million. It was generally understood that the TF and the low-volume SV supercar were not a part of this deal. It has now emerged that the Patent Office design register lists the SAIC as the owner of TF. The records show that the ownership was transferred to the SAIC as early as last autumn, in September 2004. Sources in the PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrator trying to sell the TF with the MG brand, said that only a "small part of the engine" of the TF rather than the whole design, had been transferred to the SAIC. The TF and the SV had been excluded from the deal, as there was no market for them in China.
| PricewaterhouseCoopers is trying to sell the TF by a bidding process, which invites bids form applicants. This process is set to close on Wednesday and applicants are required to submit their final proposals by then. But the sale is now in jeopardy as a spokesman with the Patent office has told that any attempt to reverse the situation of the ownership would require permission from SAIC who are currently the legal owners. The SAIC was unavailable for comment.
This latest muck-up adds another twist to the already murky tale of the Birmingham-based firm, which filed for bankruptcy in April. Around 6,100 workers in the Longbridge factory in central England were felled as the firm collapsed.
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