London black cab maker, Manganese Bronze, signed up with Geely automobile last year to make the famous London taxi cab in China for export to the UK and for use in China. Manganese Bronze recognised that their cab only had a market in the London area due to tradition and the high cost of the cab which due to the strong British Pound made the cab too expensive for other markets. Geely have stepped in and offered up their Maple factory for refitting to manufacture the TX4 taxi cab in China where materials and labor costs are a fraction of the UKs. The JV, 52% owned by Geely and 48% by Manganse Bronze has been delayed by three months due to various paperwork, this has had an effect on production dates, a spokesman for Manganese Bronze expects prototype taxis to be made around mid 2008.
Manganese Bronze offered no cash for the JV but offered equity instead - 23% of Manganese Bronze went to Geely. Geely raised cash for the JV by a partial listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, this raised 90 million USD for Geely. The deal will see 40,000 taxis pouring out of the refitted Maple cars factory by 2010.
Previously on China Car Times: Where to mate, Geely TX4 to be made in China.
As I understand the British Taxi is one of the best cars inthe streets, according with a reivew made in UK. That means the standards to build this car must be very high if Geely was trusted to build taxis and send them to exigent british costumers must mena something reall good for the chinese brand, I would say that is another point for Geely
I believe the Asian made ones will be used primarily for getting into the Asian markets as the British made cab is well expensive (although its sold to Spain, Florida and either Malta/Cyprus I forget) compared to normal sedans like the Santana in China and the favorite of Pakistani cab drivers in the UK anything from the 10 year old Toyota stable Crown/Camry etc etc.
Paul Stowe is the man with the answers. Hopefully if hes not partying his face off this week in Shanghai he’ll swing by
Whats up Ash - A slow news day?
If you want an exclusive interview - drop us a line, always glad to help out China Car Times.
Any ideas how they are going to get them back to the UK? Any export shipping tie up as yet?
The part about the 23% equity in lieu of cash is interesting as I read somewhere that MB will contribute $37 million toward a total investment of $100 million.
Sounds like a win win for the ailing Geely.