Chapter 743: The possibility of dominating the British car market

While Rudolf Bruck was speaking, Xia Yu had already looked up.

Nowadays, there are really very few British auto parts suppliers left.

In the report made by Rudolf Bruck, two targets for acquisition or investment were singled out in the UK.

And one of them is a very special target that made Xia Yu's eyes light up, and he couldn't help but sigh that Rudolf Bruck had followed him for a period of time and had become bolder and more ambitious, and had even set his sights on this company.

This target is precisely the Leyland Motor Group.

When it comes to the Leyland Motor Group, ordinary people have never heard of it, but if you wait until 1989 after the name was changed, it will sound familiar, and that is the Rover Group.

The formation of the Leland Motor Group was quite complicated.

In the beginning, in 1952, the Austin Motor Works and the Norwich Car Company merged to form the British Motor Corporation, which included several car brands such as Morris, Wolseley, and Riley.

Then in 1966, Rover, which was as prestigious as Rolls-Royce, was acquired by the British truck manufacturer Leland.

In 1968, the British Motor Company joined forces with Jaguar (Panther) Motors and Leyland Motors to form the British Leyland Motor Group.

Unfortunately, although the successive mergers and acquisitions greatly strengthened the British Leyland Motor Group, due to mismanagement and the impact of the wider environment, the Group's operations were poor and it fell into a spiral of losses.

After a few years of struggling, it was nationalised in 1975 and has remained in the red ever since.

The loss-making Leland Motor Group is not an isolated case. In the current environment, almost all major British car companies are losing money, and the only ones that can remain profitable are Jaguar, a subsidiary of the Leland Motor Group, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

And Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was also one of the loss-making car companies before it was taken over by Xia Yu.

As for the Leland Motor Group, the reason why it was considered to be of acquisition value by Rudolf Bruck is because of its chassis and engines.

The Leland Motor Group is the best chassis manufacturer in the UK. Previously, Jaguar relied on the Leland Motor Group's chassis to create the lowest chassis in the UK, with particularly good performance.

The chassis used by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is also supplied by the Leland Motor Group.

In addition to the chassis, the quality of the Leland Motor Group's engines is also particularly high.

If Rolls-Royce Motor Cars can acquire Leland Automotive Group, it will ensure a stable supply of chassis and engines. Leland Automotive Group also produces other auto parts, which can complement Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Xia Yu was not surprised by these advantages in auto parts.

What made him happy was still to come.

This is about the hierarchy of British car brands.

Today, the only British ultra-luxury car brands, or brands that have become aristocratic cars, that can be shortlisted are Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Rover.

Among them, Rolls-Royce has always been known as the 'nobleman among cars'. It represents the gentlemanly demeanour of the aristocracy and is therefore loved by the upper class.

The Bentley brand has always given people a sense of the strongest and uncompromising, noble, elegant and unique connotations, coupled with comfort and fine workmanship, and is also deeply loved by the upper class.

Finally, there is the Rover car, which has been in turmoil for many years. Although it has been sold many times, it has not lost any of its popularity.

Back in the day, the Rover P5 was loved by the Queen of England and was known as the exclusive car of the British royal family. Its cultural heritage is deep and almost comparable to that of Rolls-Royce.

If Xia Yu can acquire the Leland Motors Group, then he will own the top three British car brands.

At that time, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars can completely position itself as the top British car company around these three brands. Not to mention sales, but in terms of popularity and positioning, it will definitely be the best.

Do you think that's all there is to the Leland Motors Group?

You couldn't be more wrong!

The Leland Motors Group is definitely a treasure trove that can be explored again and again, and the Rover brand is just one of them. Just think about its previous experience with mergers and acquisitions and combinations.

Rover is the English name for Rover, and Land Rover is the English name for LandRover. In fact, the Land Rover brand is within the Leland Motors Group.

Land Rover started out using the Rover car brand, and only later did it launch the Land Rover brand, which was developed specifically for the 4x4 off-road vehicle series.

In addition to the Land Rover brand, it also owns the MINI and Morris brands.

Past life In 1994, the Rover Group, after the Leyland Motor Group was renamed, was acquired by the German BMW Group for 800 million pounds. After the acquisition, BMW split out the Rover, MINI and Land Rover brands, and later sold Land Rover to Ford, which integrated the acquired Land Rover and Jaguar, and then sold it to the Indian Tata Group. The BMW Group kept MINI for its own use, and Rover and Morris were sold to the China South Industries Group in 2005. Morris was later renamed MG, and SAIC Motor Group acquired China South Industries Group, making the brand part of SAIC Motor Group again.

In addition to the aforementioned car brands, the Leland Motor Group also owns 27.4% of Jaguar Cars and is the largest shareholder. With Sir William Lyons having retired, Jaguar Cars is run by people sent by the Leland Motor Group.

Llyod-Lomax has so many gold mines in the car sector, but it also has quite a few in the truck and bus sectors.

Don't forget, the pre-merger Llyod-Lomax was a truck company.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Llyod-Lomax acquired many British car factories, such as ParkRoyal, Bristol, AEC, and Albion. It also owned many famous bus series, such as the Duple Jumbo and the Leyland Olympian.

If we follow the historical trajectory, in 1987, the Dutch DAF car company would acquire the Leland truck business, and then sell it to the American Paccar car company.

And Paccar, is the number one in the United States and the second in the world in the field of large trucks.

As for the bus manufacturing department, it was also later split from the group and acquired by the Volvo car factory.

That said, if Xia Yu could acquire the Leland Motors Group, then his automotive empire would expand rapidly.

At that time, there would be factories and brands in the fields of supercars, luxury cars, commercial vehicles, off-road vehicles, trucks, and buses, and the brand library could be enriched at once, with the potential to increase exponentially.

If he were a little more greedy, and used Leland's position as the largest shareholder of Jaguar to acquire Britain's number one car company, then Britain's position as the automotive hegemon would be unshakable!

The only other companies left that could be considered somewhat powerful would be Lotus and Aston Martin.

However, both are supercar companies. Although they are well-known, their production volumes are small, and they are often on the verge of bankruptcy, so they pose no threat!