Good luck!patpending wrote:I'm planning to read it today... wish me luck!
(starts reading - finds that, although there are over 800 pages, the first text is on p20...and that's the introduction!)
pI/22 In the case, however, of the individuals we interviewed from the Chinese automotive group (“SAIC”) with which the Group was in negotiations in 2004 and 2005, the interviews were formal but not under oath since it was not appropriate for us to administer oaths in China, where the interviews took place.
pI/22 In the case, however, of the individuals we interviewed from the Chinese automotive group (“SAIC”) with which the Group was in negotiations in 2004 and 2005, the interviews were formal but not under oath since it was not appropriate for us to administer oaths in China, where the interviews took place.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1213101/Dr-Li-1-6m-lover-shamed-Rover-boss.html
Dr Qu Li was paid more than £1.6million as a consultant by the British car firm – at the same time as she was having an affair with one of its directors.
Dr Qu Li was paid £1.69 million GBP for her services at MG Rover
Her company website boasts of its expertise in global acquisitions, business planning and contract negotiation.
But a damning 850-page Government report criticises the large fees paid to her and attacks MG Rover directors, who awarded themselves huge salaries while overseeing the firm’s demise in 2005.
The report also reveals how Dr Li, 45, was having an ‘intimate relationship’ with MG Rover director Nick Stephenson, 61.
The consultant was paid for just 15 months of work as MG Rover tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate a business deal with the Chinese motor industry to save the 110-year-old car giant. In the end it went bust with the loss of 6,300 jobs.
The Government’s report goes into great detail about the affair between Dr Li and Stephenson, who earned almost £9million in wages and benefits during the five years he helped to run MG Rover.
The report attacks the so-called Phoenix Four for the way they managed MG Rover. They took over the ailing car firm in a dramatic rescue bid in 2000.
The four directors – Stephenson, John Edwards, 57, Peter Beale, 54, and John Towers, 61, paid themselves nearly £36million during the five years they ran the company.
According to the report from the Business Department, Dr Li – who lives in a sprawling farmhouse in Studley, Worcestershire – and Mr Stephenson had tried to play down their relationship.
While Dr Li claimed there was intimacy on an ‘intermittent’ basis over maybe ‘a couple of months’, Mr Stephenson said the relationship started in early 2004, but was ‘dead and buried – probably – towards the end of that year’.
Dr Li and Stephenson played a key role in the negotiations with Chinese businesses and regularly travelled to China together.
Nick Stephenson was allegedly having an ‘intimate relationship’ with Li.
One witness told the department’s investigators ‘when she was in China in the early part of 2005 there was “lots of speculation” about the relationship between Dr Li and Mr Stephenson’.
The report added: ‘It is, perhaps, also noteworthy that the relationship was such that MG Rover engineers observed the closeness of the two on a trip to China in, probably, the second half of 2004.’
The Business Department questioned why Dr Li had been paid such large sums for her role.
The report says there was no attempt to find out the market rate for such services or whether anyone else could have done the job, concluding: ‘Our own view is that the sums which the group paid... were... much too high.’
V/6.2 Mr John Millett Mr John Millett became finance and strategy director. Mr Millett was not a qualified accountant but had a background in finance and by May 2000 had worked for MGRG and its predecessors for just under 30 years. At this time Mr Millett held the position of joint finance director of the sales and marketing division of BMW Group UK. After Techtronic’s acquisition of MGRG, Mr Millett became finance and strategy director.
V/31 We asked Mr Parsley [Sunday Times journalist] about the basis for these articles. He declined to reveal his sources, but asserted that he had a proper basis for the articles. However, we find it hard to believe that there was any solid basis for the articles.
V/26 The form sent to Companies House to record his appointment on 15 October 1998 as a director of Belgrave Projects Limited, which Mr Parker signed, named him as “Lord” Brian Parker. Although Mr Parker told us that this was a “mistake”, we find it difficult to believe that he did not notice this error at the time.
V/39 Mr Parker also told us in interview that:
he had not taken part in the conversation with Mr Towers on 26 October 2000, of which there is a tape-recording as noted at paragraph 34 above.
V/40 In our view, Mr Parker was untruthful in some aspects of his evidence to us....
Windy wrote:Remember the farmhouse at Studley Castle:
...
that's only p113. Haven't got to the farmhouse yet...V/92 Further, Studley Castle was transferred to Studley Castle Limited, a subsidiary of PVH, at a price of £2.8 million.
Well rumour suggests that when you do get there you may find some LDV vans on their way to China!patpending wrote:Windy wrote:Remember the farmhouse at Studley Castle:
...
that's only p113. Haven't got to the farmhouse yet...V/92 Further, Studley Castle was transferred to Studley Castle Limited, a subsidiary of PVH, at a price of £2.8 million.
The Chinese ex-lover of shamed Phoenix Four director Nick Stephenson has emerged as a potential takeover bidder for stricken Birmingham van manufacturer LDV.
But the takeover could mean the death-knell for van-making in Birmingham, with a “lift and shift” operation to China on the cards if Dr Qu Li seals the deal.
Dr Li, whose affair with the former Rover boss was exposed in the Government inquiry report into the collapse of Longbridge, refused to deny she was in the frame for the Washwood Heath factory.
She said: “I’m sorry, I cannot help you. I have nothing to say on this matter at all.”
Reports claimed that Dr Li, who was paid £1.7 million for consultancy work with MG Rover over a 15-month period, could seal a takeover at Washwood Heath as early as Wednesday this week.
Dr Li’s China Ventures operation is said to be the only bidder left in exclusive talks with LDV administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers after claims that Malaysian group Weststar has finally walked away.
http://www.birminghampost.net/birmingham-business/birmingham-business-news/automotive-business/2009/09/16/mg-rover-report-missed-importance-of-dr-qu-li-say-phoenix-four-65233-24703838/Sources described Dr Li as “probably the most influential Chinese business person in the UK with contacts in very high places” – and suggested she could move the van-maker to Longbridge if the takeover succeeds.
With no sign of the New Medium Car, many of MGRG’s existing models were updated during 2004. The design of the Rover 45 was updated by changing the car’s headlamps, adding new rear and front bumpers and a different engine, the Rover 25 was remodelled, introducing new headlamps, tailgate, facia, badges and revised suspension and electrics, and the design of the Rover 75 was updated, receiving new bumpers, lights, wheels, interior trim and colours. As with the redesign of the Rover 25 and Rover 45, the changes made to the Rover 75 were of a cosmetic nature. 47. In addition, MGRG began selling the MG Rover SV (“MG SV”), which was based on the Qvale Mangusta sports car, the rights to which were acquired in July 200139. The MG SV had a starting price of about £65,000. However, in 2004 (its first year of production) only four were sold, and its manufacture was very labour intensive, which contributed to a high cost base. Also in 2004, a new version of the MG ZT was introduced based on the updated Rover 75 model. Further, MGRG decided to reduce the price of the CityRover and added more equipment to the car in an attempt to increase sales. The improvements were due to be introduced into production in three phases starting on 18 February 2005, and the sales price was to be reduced (by between £500 and £900 depending on the exact model).
I think the font size is carefuly chosen so that the part of the page it covers does indeed cost that amount!patpending wrote:The last page of Part I is a hoot, though. £80!
he's just bagged his share of £16m, do you expect him to drive his own Roller?Windy wrote:...I wonder what car the author drives, if any?
Couldn't possibly get that small. I think it would need to be a microdot!Windy wrote:I think the font size is carefuly chosen so that the part of the page it covers does indeed cost that amount!patpending wrote:The last page of Part I is a hoot, though. £80!
I got the impression that bit was written by a student trainee living in the middle of London, probably female with no car...patpending wrote:he's just bagged his share of £16m, do you expect him to drive his own Roller?Windy wrote:...I wonder what car the author drives, if any?
certainly written by someone with no interest in cars - "not a car person" -Windy wrote:I got the impression that bit was written by a student trainee living in the middle of London, probably female with no car...patpending wrote:he's just bagged his share of £16m, do you expect him to drive his own Roller?Windy wrote:...I wonder what car the author drives, if any?
did Deloitte's recruit youngsters from Alchemy?
I'm still on part II, even though that is were I started!ZTsteve wrote:I'm still struggling through part II. One thing that has struck me is the things they have not mentioned, like the money spent on RDX60. And only one brief mention of TWR on page 410.
Windy wrote:I think maybe they don't appreciate the problems of Chinese goverment regulation - which is what actually killed the deal in the end!
I can't help feeling that was the report's hidden brief....(!)ZTsteve wrote:...Although I haven't finished reading it yet, so far I have to admit some of the financial transactions look suspect...
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