Chinese MG firm seeks £200m
Nanjing Auto, the Chinese car firm that bought MG Rover, is asking its Government for a loan of up to £200 million after reports that its banks are losing confidence.
The company has launched Nanjing GB to start producing MG TF Roadsters at Longbridge later this year and also aims to launch a coupe version in the US.
Nanjing bought the collapsed MG Rover business for £53 million in 2005 and has ambitious plans to build up to 200,000 MG vehicles, 250,000 engines and 100,000 gearboxes in Nanjing, investing around £230 million over the next five years.
But reports in the Chinese media claim the plan has attracted the backing of only one bank, the Import and Export Bank of China, which has offered a loan of just £33 million.
An insider was quoted as saying: "Banks apparently lost confidence in the company because several of its subsidiaries are in the red."
Now Nanjing company president Wang Haoliang has asked the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) to provide government support for a loan of £130 million to £200 million to support its car business.
But in the UK Nanjing's spokesman, Kim Custer, said today it was "business as usual". "The company has ambitious plans for expansion both in China and outside China and it is quite normal that it should seek to borrow money from time to time," he said.
