We’re hearing odd words today. The Express and Star newspaper from merry olde England are saying that SAIC and Nanjing MG are in cooperation talks which could end up with SAIC taking over a chunk of the Nanjing MG deal for 500 million quid! (thats about three trillion dollars at todays rates! Well, maybe nearer one billion USD!) MG-Rover was originally sold by BMW to the P4 Consortium for a bargain TEN Pounds before going bankrupt, then it was sold onto Nanjing Autos for a bargain 53million Pounds and now SAIC wants to buy in for up to 500 million Pounds. Somebody made some money somewhere along the lines.
The two Chinese car companies that each own a chunk of the collapsed MG Rover are in talks that could lead to a £500 million takeover deal.
Nanjing Automobile Company (NAC), the firm which is restarting production of MG’s at Longbridge this summer, is in talks with bigger rival Shanghai Automotive, which has launched its own version of Rover’s 75 saloon, called the Roewe 750.
Reports from China suggest that the Beijing government is trying to broker a merger between the two.
The leadership, which has a major stake in both businesses, hopes they can jointly relaunch MG and sell cars into Europe and the rest of the world.
It wants them to combine their development, production and marketing efforts as both are marketing cars based on the old Rover 75 saloon.
Eleanor De La Haye, spokeswoman for Nanjing’s UK MG business, said: “The talks are more about the possibility of a working partnership. It is no secret that the Chinese government has ordered them to talk and that is what they are doing.
“The discussions at the moment focus on the mutual benefits that can be gained by them working together.
“Shanghai Auto is a big company - it is like the Ford of China - but NAC is the first Chinese car company to a globally recognised brand in MG. This could mean expansion for the development facility at Longbridge,” she added
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