Chinese carmaker to buy MG Rover?

23 August 2004: Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, China's largest passenger carmaker, plans to buy MG Rover, according to reports in Automotive News.

The article says SAIC will boost its ambitions to become the world's sixth-largest automaker by taking an initial equity stake in MG Rover, a shareholding which would increase over time.

It quotes a source within MG Rover as saying that SAIC would have a 'vast majority' of the company 'two or three years from now'.

The deal would give MG Rover engineers the finances to produce the crucial replacement for the Rover 45 lower-medium car. The Chinese also see MG Rover's 1,247 western European dealers as a point of entry into Europe.

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