Leyland MDs back GM deal
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LEYLAND TRUCKS and Leyland Parts managements this week backed General Motor's bid for their businesses on the eve of the Government's deadline for rival offers.
We closed for press a few hours before final offers for Leyland, Land Rover and Freight Rover must he submitted. Loss-making Leyland Bus, for which no formal bid has yet been made, is not subject to the March 4 deadline.
In letters to their employees, the managing directors of the Trucks, Parts and Bus businesses have explained their views this week.
Leyland Bus managing director Ian McKinnon, who is leading a bid for City backing to buy the company in its present form, said little more than "the necessary work to explore the feasibility of a management-led approach is currently being carried out".
But Trucks managing director Les Wharton says Leyland has excellent products, production facilities and skills, but cannot be privatised in its present form. "To obtain the major improvement in revenues and volumes necessary to achieve world standards of competitiveness it is essential that we enter into an active co-operation with another manufacturer."
The management team headed by Land Rover-Leyland chief executive David Andrews is still seen as the main rival for GM as a buyer for Land Rover and Freight Rover.
It says it can match any United States sales operation GM could offer, that it would retain Freight Rover's purchase of engines from Austin Rover and it will offer employees shares in the business.