From the Guardian:
The Chinese company that last week spurned a life-saving deal with insolvent MG Rover has an effective veto over the sale of the company’s assets by the administrators.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) paid just £67m in the autumn for the intellectual property rights to Rover’s Powertrain engine and transmission systems and the firm’s flagship R75 saloon/estate and R25 car.
Sources close to SAIC confirmed that should any other company want to buy any of these assets, they could be prevented from exploiting them. This effectively means that for only £67m the corporation has got control of all the assets it wants from Rover, rendering them virtually worthless to anyone else. It could therefore buy them at a price of its choosing and ship them out to China.
A source close to SAIC told The Observer: ‘Nobody else can buy it or make it. This applies to Powertrain, the Rover 25 and the Rover 75.’ Asked what SAIC’s next move would be, the source said: ‘We shall see what happens.’ He admitted that if the events of the past six months had been a game of cards, the Chinese would have played a near perfect hand.
LINK:
The Guardian: Chinese hold veto on Rover asset sales