Taxi maker Manganese Bronze turns to Chinese investor for £15m rescue

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on 22/10/2012 00:00

MANGANESE Bronze, the maker of London’s iconic black taxis, is understood to be in talks with Chinese shareholder Geely to throw the British engineer a £15 million financial life line.

Geely, which took a 20 per cent stake in Manganese Bronze in 2006 as part of a deal to transfer production of the black taxis to China, is believed to be keen to protect its investment in the company, which traces its roots back to a 19th century propellor producer.

Manganese Bronze suspended its shares on 12 October at 10p, having dropped from 945p in 2007. The car maker has struggled following a recall of 400 taxis after problems were found with their steering system.

Stiff competition has come from Mercedes, which has captured a share of the London market, with Nissan also due to start making taxis.

Last week, Geely replaced Volvo Cars chief executive Stefan Jacoby with former MAN trucks boss Håkan Samuelsson, amid reports that Jacoby had clashed with Volvo and Geely chairman Li Shufu over the Swedish car maker’s sales strategy.