MG Motor UK

British sports car brand MG is now a subsidiary of China's SAIC. It was probably only ever a matter of time. Plucky MG Rover survived five years as an independent manufacturer, although few observers expected the company to last even that long when it was sold off by BMW for just Ł10 in 2000. Over six years, "the English Patient", as it was described by the German media, had already cost BMW more than Ł5bn in investment as well as the jobs of a string of the German company's most senior executives. But even slimmed down and with considerable financial support from the British government, the troubles for Rover were far from over. Sales continued to fall and attempts to broker a life-saving deal with Chinese manufacturer SAIC were exhausted in 2005, along with Rover's last cash resources. Even then, the story wasn't over. Another company, Nanjing Automobile, acquired the group's assets for Ł50m. It was itself acquired by SAIC in 2007, and production of the MG brand restarted in 2008, albeit in very small numbers.

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