Rover: Businesses go up for sale

ADMINISTRATORS to the failed MG Rover group are today expected to send out details of the businesses they have put up for sale. PricewaterhouseCoopers already has a list of potential purchasers who have applied for the prospectus, including one of the original bidders for the business, Jon Moulton's Alchemy Partners.

A crisis meeting of the Government task force on MG Rover, which includes CBI boss Sir Digby Jones, met yesterday in a bid to speed up help for 200 car dealerships hit by the car manufacturer's collapse.

The meeting came after it emerged that a network of 11 dealerships owned by Phoenix Venture Holdings, the owner of MG Rover, had also gone into administration. The administrators have written to all MG Rover suppliers asking them to estimate how much money they are owed by the failed Longbridge business.

Phoenix Venture Motors employs 427 people in 11 new and used car showrooms based in the Midlands, North-West and South of England. It has been placed in the hands of PricewaterhouseCoopers who are also handling the administration of MG Rover, engine maker Powertrain and MG Sport and Racing.

Rob Hunt, the administrator, said that three dealerships in Northampton, Oxford and Muswell Hill in north London closed yesterday with the loss of 86 jobs.

Hunt said: 'These closures reflect the results of our urgent review of PVM and take into account profitability and sales potential. We will continue to work with management to establish which of the remaining sites can stay open and continue to trade so as to preserve parts of the distribution channel for MG Rover cars.'