Govt sticks to the GM option
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Ill GOVERNMENT is determined to sell off Leyland Trucks and Land Rover to General Motors as quickly as possible.
Although other bidders are being given until early to mid-March to firm up their interest, it is quite clear in Whitehall this week that ministers are keen to seal the GM deal.
It is being pointed out that if the two companies cannot agree, then both Leyland and Bedford will have to go through a major rationalisafion.
"The option of doing nothing does not exist,one senior minister claimed this week.
It also appears that GM has warned BL that the deal is off unless Land Rover is included.
Despite that threat, ministers are convinced that a ticup with GM remains the best commercial option for Leyland Trucks and Land Rover if sufficient guarantees are made.
It appears that another sofar unnamed foreign manufacturer is interested in Leyland Trucks on its Own.
Apart from GM, Lonrho and A veling Barford (a former BL-owned dump truck maker) have indicated interest in Land Rover and a management buy-out offer is also on the cards.
Two unnamed foreign manufacturers and one unnamed British company have also expressed interest.
Apart from the Laird Group, Volvo and Aydin Barford are discussing the future of Leyland Bus with the BL hoard. It is understood that the Laird negotiations, although not as far down the road as those with GM, are ahead of the other two.
In the Commons this week, Trade and Industry Secretary Paul Channon said: "The House is deluding itself if it imagines the problems are over, that hard decisions can be avoided or that there is some magic road down which we (-An go."
• 1,and Rover export problem, p19