Russian rich line up for Rover bid

Two of Russia’s richest men have emerged as potential bidders for collapsed United Kingdom car maker MG Rover, British newspaper The In...

Two of Russia’s richest men have emerged as potential bidders for collapsed United Kingdom car maker MG Rover, British newspaper The Independent said on Monday.

The paper said Nikolai Smolenski, 24, who bought British sports car maker TVR last year, was thought to have opened talks with administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to buy the group and restart production of all its models.

The 100-year-old British carmaker, which once made the iconic Mini and the Land Rover, collapsed two weeks ago, after it ran out of money and failed to secure a rescue deal with China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry (SAIC). The collapse resulted in 5,000 redundancies and an embarrassment for Tony Blair’s ruling Labour party as it campaigns for Thursday’s general election.

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The Independent report also said Oleg Deripaska, who controls Russian carmaker RusPromAvto, was also thought to be planning a bid. RusPromAvto’s Deputy Chairman Alexander Yushkevich was quoted as telling a St Petersburg paper: ‘‘A decision will be taken once a valuation of the bankrupt English company has been completed, which could take about a year.’’

Both Deripaska as well as Smolenski were unavailable for comment on Monday.