Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corp. has launched a British search for senior managers to lead a revived MG Rover and said it was not in a hurry to sell major stakes in the British carmaker.

"We are talking to a number of senior players with experience in this industry with a view to recruitment. We are looking for the right team and the right partners,'' a Nanjing Automobile spokesman said.

Nanjing Automobile won an auction to buy MG Rover last week, promising to partly revive production at the British carmaker, which collapsed under debts of 1.4 billion pounds (US$2.44 billion) in April.

The Financial Times newspaper reported Tuesday that Nanjing Automobile had offered a majority stake in MG Rover to unsuccessful rival bidders, just days after winning the deal.

"That is not our priority. We are talking to people and if something comes out of it we would be foolish to ignore it,'' the spokesman said.

Nanjing Automobile's executives are talking to unions, politicians and business leaders in central England about MG Rover's future this week. It hopes to revive car production in the West Midlands although that is unlikely to be at MG Rover's former Longbridge plant.

Nanjing Automobile met Tuesday with workers of MG Rover's car factory to discuss jobs. Longbridge plant union representatives hoped to get Nanjing Automobile's executives to restore about 2,000 of the 5,000 jobs lost at the facility, Sky TV reported.

Nanjing Automobile said it would seriously consider Longbridge as the location for its manufacturing site.

 (Shenzhen Daily July 28, 2005)