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Article: Hard lessons at MG Rover.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Automotive News Europe
- Article date:
- April 18, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Two lessons can be learned from the likely demise of MG Rover. The first one is not to underestimate the Chinese. Since 2004, all signs have pointed to an imminent acquisition of MG Rover by Shanghai Automotive. But as negotiations dragged on, it became clear to the Chinese that the original [pounds sterling]1 billion was too much.
SAIC also realized its revised offer of about [pounds sterling]200 million was a lot of money for a one-plant, mass-market carmaker with a dwindling market share. So discussions continued.
It now appears SAIC has concluded that it doesn't make business sense to go through with the transaction. It can probably pick up any ...