The government on Sunday announced a 6.5 million-pound (US$11.7 million, ¤3.2 million) loan to keep troubled British automaker MG Rover afloat while the company tries to revive a crucial deal with a Chinese car maker. MG Rover filed for a form of bankruptcy protection Friday after the Shanghai Automotive Industry Co., or SAIC, pulled out of a talks about its planned takeover of the last major British-owned car manufacturer. That threatened the future of MG Rover, which employs 6,000 people at its main plant at Longbridge in Birmingham, central England. Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said Sunday the loan will pay wages and expenses for a week while officials try to persuade SAIC to reconsider. She said the government had agreed to the funds «in order to avoid the issuing of redundancy notices at MG Rover while efforts are made to keep the business together.» Administrators, government officials, company managers and union leaders spent the weekend in crisis talks in an attempt to revive the proposed partnership between MG Rover and SAIC. In statement issued jointly with the Transport and General Workers' Union, and the union Amicus, Hewitt said the government «has agreed to assist and work with the administrator and with the unions who will be developing, with all reasonable speed, a realistic business proposition for SAIC and other possible purchasers to consider.
