History
The Rover Group plc was formed by renaming BL plc in 1986, soon after the appointment by Margaret Thatcher of Canadian Graham Day to the position of Chairman and Managing Director of BL.
After divesting of its commercial vehicle and bus manufacturing divisions the company then consisted of the car manufacturing arm Austin Rover Group and the Land Rover Group. This group was privatised in 1988 by the sale of the company to British Aerospace (BAe) for £150 million, who retained Day as joint CEO/Chairman, and made Kevin Morley MD of Rover cars. The Group changed its name again in 1989 to Rover Group Holdings Limited.
On 31 January 1994 BAe sold the company on to German vehicle manufacturer BMW for £800 million (a takeover which caused uproar in the House of Commons), the name changing again in 1995 to BMW (UK) Holdings Limited.
Millions of pounds of investment by BMW failed to turn the company into profit. It has been estimated that the entire Rover bankruptcy cost BMW fifteen billion Marks. In March 2000, BMW announced its plans to sell the Rover Group. Within two months, much of the group had been sold.
Read more about this topic: Rover Group
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