James's bids for Rover look domed as Nanjing close in |
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Fri, 22 Jul 2005 19:35
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LONDON: British businessman David James has submitted two bids to buy out the assets of ailing MG Rover. The bids have been made through a consortium set up by James for the purpose, Project Kimber. Two other Chinese parties lodged bids, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp and Nanjing Automobile with the latter as favorite to take the spoils.
One of the bids is for the MG Rover brand -- the intellectual property rights, production line and tooling for the MG TF sports car -- and the means to contract build for third-party car makers.
The second bid is for Powertrain, Rover's engine production line.
James refused to reveal what the offer price is but the combined figure is estimated at close to £40 million.
In a statement Thursday, he said, "The combination of one or the other of these and another successful bid for the Rover related assets, from a third party, will provide the optimum combination that will be in the best interests of the creditors."
Meanwhile, bids have been lodged with the administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, by Chinese firms Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp and rival Nanjing Automobile.
Shanghai Automotive Industry's bid is worth 60 million pounds, according to sources. The company is assisted in its efforts by Martin Leach, a former head of Ford Europe, and Ed Sabisky, a former finance director of Vauxhall. The offer covers revival of production and valuable jobs at the Longbridge car factory in Birmingham and converting it into the Chinese company's global research, development and engineering centre.
Nanjing has teamed up with engineering consultancy Arup and looks like being the the successful bidder at this point, an outcome certain to dissapoint James.
James, known in British corporate circles as a company recovery specialist, has hinted that he would wish to maintain niche manufacturing on the site. Heading Project Kimber, an initiative to revive the MG sports car, he has been trying to secure funds for the bid.
In a development complicating the sale process, Honda, which has rights for several designs, has repossessed equipment and blueprints relating to Rover's mid-sized car. This will affect any effort to restart production of the Rover 45 or MG ZS models.
MG Rover had collapsed in April 2005 resulting in 6,000 job losses and 1.4 billion in debts.
PwC is said to have valued Rover and Powertrain at £50m. James' bid is expected to value MG Rover at 40 million pounds.
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