Media round up on the SAIC-NAC merge

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The press had a field day reporting on the next new owners of MG, (how many companies have actually owned MG to date?)

We’ve brought together some of the best articles on the story:

Telegraph.co.uk

The merger of two of China’s bigger car manufacturers could be good news for a famous old British name, writes Russell Hotten

Nothing has symbolised China’s rapid industrial expansion like its automotive industry. With only a handful of indigenous manufacturers a few years ago, the country now has more than 30 players competing alongside foreign names such as General Motors and Fiat in what is the world’s fastest growing car market.

Yahoo (via Reuters)

HANGHAI (Reuters) – A deal struck this week puts a venerable British motoring brand in the hands of China’s top car maker, raising hopes that Shanghai Automotive might do for MG what Germany’s BMW did for the Mini.

Shanghai Auto on Wednesday agreed a $286 million dollar (143.4 million pound) deal to acquire the vehicle and core auto parts operations of Nanjing Auto, an eastern China manufacturer which surprised car enthusiasts in 2005 by snapping up the MG brand and some other assets after the collapse of the British firm, MG Rover.

With a stock market value of $24 billion, Shanghai Auto, backed by parent SAIC, has financial clout roughly equivalent to Italy’s Fiat or Hyundai of South Korea.

“Funding is obviously not a major concern now that the companies are joining forces,” said Chen Qiaoning, analyst at ABN AMRO TEDA Fund Management in Shanghai.

Automotive News Europe

BEIJING — Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp. has taken over the British assembly plant of another Chinese automaker gearing up to produce MG roadsters.

SAIC wants to use the plant in Longbridge, England, to build sales in Europe. SAIC is General Motors’ production partner in China.

“The British business will become SAIC’s new platform for overseas markets and a window of SAIC toward Europe,” says Chen Hong, president of SAIC.

SAIC said today in China that it had acquired Nanjing Automobile Corp., which owns the rights to the MG brand. Nanjing’s plant, now owned by SAIC, had planned to reintroduce an MG roadster in Europe.