MG Rover - t’is a sad day

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Reading this it sounds like a Setup !

 

From Todays Telegraph

 

Russian carmaker to raise £85m in the City
By Edward Simpkins (Filed: 17/04/2005)

A Russian carmaker with strong links to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), the Chinese firm whose decision to end talks with MG Rover last week led to the final collapse of the British company, is planning to raise $160m (£85m) in London.

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SeverStal Auto is looking to offer UK institutions about 9m shares, around 30 per cent of the company, for sale at up to $17.80 each. The fund-raising values the company at $533m and the shares will be listed in Russia with trading expected to start later this month.

SeverStal Auto is the car and engine manufacturing division of the huge SeverStal steel and industrial group, Russia's largest steelmaker.

The company has appointed Deutsche Bank, which has a joint venture with United Financial Group, the Russian bank, to raise the funds. A roadshow including senior executives from SeverStal has been meeting potential investors in London and the fund raising is due to complete this week.

SeverStal Auto owns the Ulyanovsk Automotive Plant (UAZ) and the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant (ZMZ) in Russia. Both UAZ, a leading maker of four-wheel drive vehicles, and ZMZ are well-known Russian automotive brands.

In December last year, the company agreed a $500m deal with SsangYyong Motor, a South Korean carmaker owned by SAIC, that will see it assemble more than 26,000 of Ssangyong's sports utility vehicles at its Ulyanovsk plant.

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Nigel wrote: Hmmm. Its all academic, although not very pleasant. I don't suppose it matters much to my brother in law and his mates now, they just don't have jobs anymore. In many ways the workers have themselves to blame for their outdated working practices, and brain dead attitude to working in the 21st century. Our unwillingness to pay for anything in this country needs to be addressed. We seem to want the best of both worlds, we want to earn a lot of money, making producimg anything here expensive, but we then want to buy as cheaply as possible, making our own products too expensive for us, so we buy goods from the far east, our home produced products don't sell, the factories close, and the jobs and expertise are lost.

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Think that sums it up, Top Quality & as cheap as possible but can I earn a fortune as well please

 

Went & watched XPF convoy come in to Longbridge at lunchtime, Volvo police car leading them !

 

 

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Edited by Peter H

Nigel wrote: We seem to want the best of both worlds, we want to earn a lot of money, making producimg anything here expensive, but we then want to buy as cheaply as possible, making our own products too expensive for us, so we buy goods from the far east, our home produced products don't sell, the factories close, and the jobs and expertise are lost.

Nigel, I agree with your sentiments but its not impossible for quality, efficiency and productivity to coexist in British industry.  However, it does take a willingness embrace change, economic realities, etc. to succeed.  Take Nissan as an example.  Their UK operation is an example to all of Nissan as well as the British manufacturing industry.

The difference is that Nissan were able to start with a clean sheet of paper and design a business that incorporated the flexibility and efficiency needed to be successful and weren't carrying decades of baggage in terms of work practices, demaraction, management practice, etc.

Nigel wrote: Our unwillingness to pay for anything in this country needs to be addressed. We seem to want the best of both worlds, we want to earn a lot of money, making producimg anything here expensive, but we then want to buy as cheaply as possible, making our own products too expensive for us, so we buy goods from the far east, our home produced products don't sell, the factories close, and the jobs and expertise are lost.

I agree. It's the same as taxation. We all want the quality in public services but don't want to pay for it.

Also people don't realise that buying British is about more than just being patriotic, it's about supporting the British economy (Mind you I can't talk since I don't own a British car, although my last car was made over here)

I think we pay enough to get good public service, but instead, the govt fritter it away on Millennium Dome's asylum seekers and other such tat!

I believe that a couple of years ago a business man offered to buy out Rover MG. He was going to scrap Rover but keep MG going as a specialist sports car manufacturer. People complained he was a "Capitalist" and he was going to gut the company. The irony was that the workers would have got far more of a pay off than they currently do!

The reason they weren't successful is that they were poorly made, they fell apart. Rover seemed to throw away any sort of quality and instead give leather seats etc. What do you expect from a £12k car that has full leather interior?? We had a couple of MG's at work, they fell apart - even more than the Peugeot's!

The Met Police drive 5 series BMW's and E Class Mercs!

It is a shame, none the less.

James

Sorry to see Mg Rover go, interesting about russians, is that likely to mean a bid for company or parts of it? Last I heard chinese and russians weren't too fond of each other.

I had an SD1 till local vandals put it beyond economical repair, I liked it, but it's well known that build quality and all the strikes caused no end of trouble in the late 70's, and they had struggled to recover.

Feel sorry for all the workers, but amazed at some of the TV reports saying how they were all shocked to be made redundant, did anyone with a TV NOT see this coming weeks/months, maybe years ago?

Peter Fenwick wrote: therealmccoy wrote: I think we pay enough to get good public service, but instead, the govt fritter it away on Millennium Dome's asylum seekers and other such tat! I thought the millenium dome was paid for with lottery money or am I mistaken? Alowing genuine asylum seekers into the country is the right thing to do. I don't consider spending tax payers money on genuine asylum seekers a waste.

Genuine asylum seekers don't have mobile phones, designer clothes and lots of Jewelry! Paid for by me!

The demise of Rover will be a topic of conversation for months to come, 'who said what', 'who did what' etc etc

Along with the 3000 or so redundancies from the Index stores, things couldn't be worse for the upcoming election.  Regardless who wins at the polls, the fatcats will always get fatter and there will always be dubious business dealings that end in tears.

Those who have already lost their jobs and those who will do so in the snowball effect from Rover have very little to look forward to.  Hopefully at Longbridge the awaited business park will be built as quickly as possible and the promised jobs will become available very soon.  But we can't forget that its not just Longbridge that has been, and will be affected by this tragedy.  This snowball is rolling out of control and anyone caught in its path will have their lives ripped apart and their futures placed in jeopardy, as will their children when they leave school.  The lives touched by this outrage will probably never recover...apart from those who fleeced and drained the company bank accounts.

Seems the Rover employees are to be offered retraining and possible re-employment on the oil rigs.  Could be quite a beneficial move for those willing to take it up.

Peter Fenwick wrote: No matter what happens the management are always trying to screw the work force.

How can you say somethingso condemning on the basis of a couple of headline figures from organisations!!!!!!

You sound like an archaic union official!

Tell you what, let the work force run the company - they'll be out of jobs within weeks.

I can appreciate an opinion that is a bit more specific, but not one that brackets every company in one statement!