London, Sep 12 (ANI): MG Rover’s director paid his lover 1.7 million pounds for a year’s work, according to a report on the collapse of the car manufacturing giant.
In May 2000, the Phoenix consortium-John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards-acquired the business for a nominal 10 pounds from BMW.
BMW ensured that MG Rover could survive for a few years. But from the outset, it was clear that it had no long-term future unless it could find a substantial business partner within the motor industry.
The report into the demise of the giant compiled by Gervase MacGregor, a partner at the accountants BDO Stoy Hayward, and the barrister Guy Newey QC condemns the consortium which made a fortune out of the collapsed car maker, The Independent reports.
They reported that the four directors supplied inaccurate and misleading information about Rover’s finances to MPs, and singled out evidence Beale gave to the Commons trade and industry select committee.
They expressed concern over the plainly excessive fee of almost 1.7 million pounds paid to Dr Qu Li for advice she gave the Phoenix management about potential business partners in China.
For some of the time Dr Li was paid by Rover, she and Stephenson were having an affair. The report protested about the poor “corporate governance” of the Phoenix team: some board members were not invited to several board meetings and inaccurate minutes were taken of discussions.
Despite the failure of MG Rover between 2000 and 2005, the Phoenix Four continued to pay themselves generously right up to the group’s demise in 2005.
Towers, who led the buyout, was paid 8.96 million pounds, Stephenson 8.98 million pounds and Edwards received 9.02 million pounds. Beale, who is accused of misleading the parliamentary inquiry into the company’s collapse, was paid 8.98 million pounds over the four years, while Howe pocketed 5.71 million pounds.
The report cleared ministers of blame for MG Rover’s demise. (ANI)
Heavy-vehicle maker Scania sees pre-tax income shrink
Stockholm – Swedish heavy-vehicle maker Scania saw almost all its pre-tax profits vanish in the first-quarter 2009, the group said Monday, citing lower deliveries and shrinking demand. Pre-tax income was 164 million kronor (20 million dollars), down 95 per cent compared to 2.5 billion kronor in the corresponding business period 2008.
Year-on-year sales in the quarter declined 28 per cent to 15.8 billion kronor, while operating income fell 86 per cent to 506 million kronor.
“Falling vehicle deliveries and substantially lower capacity utilisation pulled down earnings,” Scania chief executive Leif Ostling said in a comment.
Ostling added that “practically all markets where Scania has operations are characterised by low economicactivity due to the turbulence in the financial markets and its impact on the real economy.”
The company did not see any major change in demand for the coming quarters, Ostling said.
Scania has trimmed its production workforceto about 10,000 employees, and most work daytime shifts. The group was also to continue its training programmes for staff.
The group had some 33,600 employees at the end of the quarter.
During the quarter, Scania truck deliveries fell 43 per cent year-on-year to 9,937 units while order bookings shrank 74 per cent to 4,783 trucks. For central and eastern Europe, order bookings dropped 94 per cent.
Bookings for buses fell 39 per cent to 1,278 units and the group delivered 1,367 units in the quarter, down 9 per cent year-on-year.
Scania estimated it had about 13.9 per cent of the truck market in Europe, almost the same as in first-quarter 2008. (dpa)