Monday, December 20, 2010

MG Rover Group

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MG Rover Group


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MG Rover Group


MG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000.

MG Rover went into administration in 2005 and its key assets were purchased by Nanjing Automobile Group, with Nanjing restarting MG sports car and sports saloon production in 2007. The Rover brand, which had been retained by BMW and licensed to MG Rover, was sold to Ford, which had bought Land Rover from BMW in 2000. The rights to the dormant Rover brand were sold by Ford, along with Jaguar Land Rover, to Tata Motors in 2008.


History of MG Rover


MG Rover was formed from the parts of the former Rover Group volume car production business which BMW sold off in 2000 due to constant losses and a declining market share. BMW had acquired the Rover Group from British Aerospace in 1994 and had since sold the Land Rover business to Ford, and split-off the MINI business as a new BMW subsidiary based in Cowley. MG Rover took control of the remainder of the former Rover Group volume car business, which was consolidated at the Longbridge plant.


Phoenix Consortium ownership


When BMW sold off its interests, MG Rover was bought for a nominal £10 in May 2000 by a specially-assembled group of businessmen known as the Phoenix Consortium. The consortium was headed by ex-Rover Chief Executive John Towers.

When Phoenix Consortium took over, their first loss for the last eight months of 2000 were reported to be around £400m. By 2004, the company had reduced the losses to around £80m but never made e a profit.

MG Rover's best year for car sales was their first full year of business, in 2001 — when they sold over 170,000 cars. In the year of 2004, their sales had declined to around 120,000.

The company eventually ceased trading on 8 April 2005, with debts of over £1.4 billion, after a proposed alliance with SAIC collapsed.


Aborted deal with SAIC of China


In June, 2004, it was learned that Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation had signed a joint venture partnership to develop new models and technologies with MG Rover. This led to much speculation among the British media suggesting the Chinese company was poised to launch a takeover. Later that year, in November, news broke of an agreement between the two companies to create a joint venture company to produce up to a million cars a year, with the production shared between MG Rover's Longbridge site and locations in China. SAIC were to have a 70% stake in this company in return for a £1 billion investment, with MG Rover owning the remaining 30%. However, this agreement had to be ratified by the Chinese government, specifically its National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The Commission held the opinion that if BMW could not make a success of Rover, then it would be hard for SAIC to do so.

On 8 December 2004, Tata of India, which had cooperated over the export of the Tata Indica as the CityRover, threatened to cease its agreement with MG Rover if the SAIC tie-up went ahead, according to the Indian press. Tata claimed the report was inaccurate two days later.

SAIC did purchase the technical rights to manufacture Rover's 25 and 75 models, and for the Powertrain Ltd business, for £67M. It did not acquire the Rover name, which was still owned by BMW at the time (See 'Brands' below).

In January 2005, it was revealed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had intervened to support the alliance between MG Rover and SAIC. MG Rover could not give a date on which the agreement would be finalized.

Figures released by the company showed that the sale of Rover-branded cars fell in 2004 compared to 2003.

In April 2005 it was reported that the partnership deal with SAIC was in trouble because the British Government had decided to withdraw its offer of a £120 million loan to keep the deal going. On 7 April 2005 the company announced that it was suspending production because of component shortages. Later in the day, it was announced by Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, that the company was being placed in receivership. Her statement was based on a conversation with MG Rover chairman, John Towers. It was later denied by MG Rover Group, although the company admitted that it had engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountancy firm, to advise on its current financial situation. In the event, MG Rover placed itself in administration on 8 April 2005, a different status from receivership under British law.

On the afternoon of 8 April 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Richard Burden, Labour M.P. for Birmingham Northfield visited Tony Woodley at the offices of the Transport and General Workers' Union in Birmingham and stated that there might be some hope for the future of the company, although not the original deal agreed with SAIC. In the media, any news about MG Rover was overshadowed by the Pope's funeral and the problems of the register office marriage of the Prince of Wales and his bride.

On 10 April 2005, MG Rover announced that they had received a £6.5M loan from the British Government. This would cover workers' wages for one week while buy-out proposals were made to SAIC. The same week, SAIC denied it had ever made an offer to buy MG Rover and threatened to sue anyone who attempted to make the 25 and 75 models.



MG Rover Group
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MG Rover Group



Timeline


* Spring 2000: MG Rover was formed as the part of the former Rover Group's mass-market car business which BMW sold to the Phoenix Consortium for a nominal £10.
* 2001: MG Rover buy the factory and the rights to the platform of the Mangusta car from Qvale of Italy for an estimated £10 million.
* 2001: The MG ZR, MG ZS and MG ZT (based on the Rover 25, Rover 45, Rover 75 respectively) are launched as sporting alternatives to the standard Rover models.
* 2002: A revised version of the MG F is launched as the MG TF.
* 2002: MG Rover agrees to collaborate with Tata of India.
* 2002: MG Rover also goes into talks with Brilliance China Auto with plans to build MG Rovers in a plant in China
* 2003: MG Rover launches the new MG XPower SV and SV-R sportscars, prices start at around £65,000. The car is based on the Qvale Mangusta and uses the Ford 4.6 litre V8 engine with two different power outputs.
* 2003: MG Rover launches the new CityRover - a small 5-door hatchback city car, based on the 1998 Tata Indica, which was the product of 2002's collaboration with Tata Motors.
* 2003: MG and Rover launches V8 variants of the Rover 75 and the MG ZT.
* 2003: MG Rover launch a restyled version of the Rover 25, the Rover Streetwise. Referred to as an "urban on-roader", it has SUV-like styling.
* 2003/04: MG Rover sell the Longbridge factory to St. Modwen Properties on a lease-back basis to raise funds.
* 2004: MG Rover launches facelifted versions of the Rover 25/45/75 and MG ZR/ZS/ZT/ZT, with revised front and rear ends. Rover 25/45/Streetwise and MG ZR/ZS also get revised fascias.
* 2004: MG Rover enters in talks with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) about a possible collaboration.
* 2004: MG Rover sell the design rights to the Rover 25 and 75 to SAIC to raise money to keep the business afloat.
* 2005: Negotiations on possible joint venture with SAIC stall, and MG Rover collapses. Price Waterhouse Coopers called in as administrators.
* 2005: Nanjing Automobile Group acquires the entire assets of MG Rover.
* 2005/06: Nanjing Automobile Group announces plans to build cars at Longbridge after signing a deal to lease the site for 33 years.
* 2006: SAIC sets up a new brand called Roewe after losing the right to buy the Rover brand name, and later launches a model based on an extended Rover 75 platform, called the Roewe 750.
* 2006: Ford buys the rights to the Rover marque, meaning that only the MG badge can be used on the new range of Nanjing-built cars.
* 2007: Nanjing Automobile Group restarts MG TF production in China.
* 2007: SAIC and Nanjing Automobile Group announce a tie-up and a possible merger which is completed on 26 December.
* 2008: Nanjing production of the limited edition MG TF LE500 commences at the Longbridge plant.
* 2009: Production of the standard MG TF 135 commences at Longbridge.

Brands

All of the following brands were controlled by MG Rover, and were formerly the property of British Leyland.

* 1895 Wolseley
* 1905 Austin
* 1912 Morris
* 1913 Vanden Plas as a coachbuilder and as a car brand (outside the US & Canada)
* 1923 MG was created by Cecil Kimber based on Morris components
* 1930 American Austin a brand name created by Austin for US market
* 1947 Princess was created by Vanden Plas as a luxury car name
* 1987 Sterling created as a separate brand in the US by the Rover Group

The Rover brand was used under license from BMW, and was sold to Ford following the collapse of MG Rover; it was subsequently bought in 2008 by TATA.

The MG XPower brand was created by MG Rover for their motorsport subsidiary, MG Sport and Racing Ltd. in 2001. It was subsequently used for the MG XPower SV sportscar, a higher powered version of the Qvale Mangusta, in 2002. After the demise of MG Rover, assets of MG Sport and Racing relating to the XPower SV were acquired from PWC, the Administrators, by the newly-formed MG Sports and Racing Europe Ltd. However this company's use of the "MG" trademark resulted in a legal dispute with Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation, which had also acquired assets of the defunct MG Rover Group. This case was won by Nanjing in February 2010.

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