mgf.be

[Brooklands]

NANJING Automobile wants to revive the Rover name and is in talks with BMW to buy the rights to use the famous marque on its Birmingham-built models. The Chinese company is one of several firms which has approached BMW to buy the right to call its cars Rover.

The name was licensed by BMW to MG Rover's parent company Phoenix Venture Holdings when the German firm pulled out in 2000. But the licence agreement lapsed last year with the collapse of MG Rover, while Nanjing only acquired the right to use the MG name as part of the £53 million deal to buy the assets of the Longbridge carmaker.

Lin Xiaohu, preparing director at Nanjing, said senior executives from his company in China were talking to BMW about buying the Rover name.
He firmly dismissed reports that Nanjing was looking to sell the MG name or that it was looking to shift its manufacturing operations from Birmingham to Coventry.

He said: "It is impossible we would want to sell the MG name, absolutely impossible. We never want to sell any brands from MG Rover; in fact we want to own more. That's why we are talking to BMW about buying the Rover brand from BMW. The Rover name is very important; it is very famous in China and we want to develop in China and other markets."

Mr Lin said Nanjing remained committed to manufacturing at Longbridge, with the first cars - updated versions of the MG TF sports car due to come off the production line next year. He said the rumours about moving to Coventry could have followed a visit by Nanjing executives to the city.

"We have been to a company called Stadco in Coventry, which produced the body-in-white shells for MG TF. We are are in discussions with them to move it from Coventry to Longbridge, which is our headquarters in the UK. A extra six month lease has been agreed with St Modwen for part of Longbridge and we are talking to them about a more long term arrangement. We are hopeful of getting a 35-year deal to make MG Rover cars at Longbridge - first MG TF and then ZT."

Mr Lin added that a delegation from seven Chinese banks had visited Birmingham last week to see the site. These included representatives from Bank of China, China Commercial Bank and others, who Nanjing hopes will back its plans with an estimated £100million to restart production in Birmingham.

Mr Lin would not be drawn on how much capital investment Nanjing was seeking, but said the company was expecting an answer "very soon."

He added that he did not understand why Project Kimber, the consortium led by troubleshooter David James, was saying it was now in talks to build sports cars under the MG name. He said: "I do not know why Kimber would say this. There are no talks with Kimber."

Instead Mr Lin said that Nanjing was looking to exhibit its first car at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire. He said: "We are restarting production of this car, and we want the first car we produce to go on show at the Gaydon. This car will be part of the new history of MG Rover."

A spokeswoman for BMW said: "We have been approached by several parties with regard to the possible purchase of the Rover trademark. "We are not at liberty to disclose who we are talking to at the moment because we are bound by commercial confidentiality."

18-02-2006

[MGF]

Dat is goed nieuws, hopelijk krijgen ze de merknaam te pakken.

[Brooklands]

Dat is goed nieuws, hopelijk krijgen ze de merknaam te pakken.

Na maanden van stilte is er toch weer gerommel. We blijven optimistisch.

[MGF]

Inderdaad, laten we hopen op het beste

[Coen]

Elke keer wel weer roddels, het is dus niet zo dat MGRover al op de onderste plank van de kast ligt.

[Brooklands]

Elke keer wel weer roddels...

Ik heb de Telegraaf als bron afgezworen en richt mij nu op de Financial Times. Deze durven zelfs de naam van de redacteur te vermelden. Ik wil hun berichten dus niet per direct als roddels betitelen.