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Phoenix Venture Holdings

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Phoenix Venture Holdings Ltd

Type	Holding Company
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Longbridge, Birmingham
Key people	John Towers, Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson, and John Edwards
Industry	Automobiles
Subsidiaries	MG Rover & Powertrain Ltd

Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH), also known as the Phoenix Consortium, is a British company formed by four businessmen (John Towers, Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson, and John Edwards). Following BMW's break-up of the Rover Group a financially complex deal involving a £500 million "dowry payment" from BMW, resulted in PVH purchasing Rover in May 2000 for the notional sum of £10, relaunching the car company as MG Rover. MG Rover and related companies placed themselves in administration on April 8, 2005. Phoenix Venture's main trading businesses are/were:

Studley Castle Ltd.
MGR Financial Ltd. - joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland
MG Rover Exports Ltd. - administered by PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Phoenix Distribution Ltd. - administered by PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Phoenix Venture Motors Ltd. - administered by PriceWaterhouseCoopers
MG Rover Group Ltd. - administered by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, assets sold to Nanjing Automobile
Powertrain Ltd. - administered by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, assets sold to Nanjing Automobile
MG Sport and Racing Ltd. - administered by PriceWaterhouseCoopers

1 Background
2 Other assets
3 SAIC
4 External links

Background

BMW had acquired the Rover Group in 1994, but by 1999 it had become a major financial liability. Since September 1999 the venture capital company Alchemy Partners, run by Jon Moulton and Eric Walters, had been in talks with BMW about acquiring Rover. When news of the talks became public on March 16, Alchemy was widely expected to take control of MG and Rover. By that time, it was already decided that BMW would retain Mini and sell Land Rover. Alchemy intended to name the company the MG Car Company, selling the MG-F roadster and possibly developing additional, limited production sports cars. The Rover brand would have been dropped and all volume production abandoned. On April 6, 2000 John Towers — the most prominent of the four men known as the Phoenix consortium — presented a counter-offer to BMW. The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G), the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the British public in general all threw their support behind Towers and the Phoenix Consortium; as Phoenix were the only potential bidders proposing to retain high-volume car production and full employment at the Rover plant in Longbridge, Birmingham. During April, with access to the company accounts Alchemy became more nervous about the deal when acceptable terms could not be agreed upon witing a reasonable time frame, and pulled out. On May 8, following a last-minute injection of finance from the First Union Bank of North Carolina, a deal with Phoenix was agreed. The sale occurred on May 9. Due to UK regulations that hold the prior owner of a company responsible for all redundancy payments if the said company declares bankruptcy within 3 years of sale, BMW guaranteed that Phoenix Venture Holdings (initially named MG Rover Holdings) would have enough money to keep Rover Group in business for at least 3 years following the sale. Phoenix's short-term plan was to expand the MG range with sporting versions of existing Rovers, introduce new versions of the Rover 25 model,reengineer and redesign the MG F, and eventually replace the entire model range with new cars developed through joint venture. Sadly, the new models would never reach showrooms. The "dowry" from BMW was made up of a £427million interest-free loan and stocks of cars. Kevin Howe was appointed MG Rover's managing director in July 2000. It is estimated that, by April 2005, the four Phoenix executives had made around £40 million from MG Rover, a good return on the £60,000 they each invested. MG Rover and related companies placed themselves in administration on April 8, 2005.

Other assets

Included in the sale were:

Studley Castle in Warwickshire, a conference hotel
the Midland Powertrain engine plant, costing an additional £20
Rover Capital (now MG Rover Capital), a book of car loans, costing an additional £50 along with an undisclosed sum from the Bank of Scotland

For accounting purposes, Phoenix Venture Holdings also includes various non-trading subsidiary companies that exist in name only. These businesses include: