Rover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or 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 who on 31 January 1994 sold the company on to German vehicle manufacturer BMW. Millions of pounds of investment by BMW failed to turn the company into profit. BMW retained Mini production, sold Land Rover to Ford and the remainder to the Phoenix Consortium as The MG Rover Group. Land-Rover was subsequently sold by Ford to TATA Motors; the rights to the Rover brand name are now owned by TATA Motors of India, owners of both Land-Rover and Jaguar - in addition TATA Motors also own Daimler and Lanchester brands.
In March 2000, BMW announced its plans to sell the Rover Group. Within two months, the sale of the group had been completed. Land Rover became part of Ford Motor Company, while BMW retained the rights to build the new MINI that was due for a launch 12 months later. BMW also retained the rights to the Riley and Triumph marques. The MG marque was purchased and the Rover leased by the Phoenix Consortium, who continued to build cars at the Longbridge plant - including the original Mini for the final few months of its 41-year production life.
After ongoing talks of acquisition/bailout by SAIC failed in early 2005, the Rover Group went into receivership. After the division of assets, SAIC ended up with ownership of the rights to the Rover 75 (though not under that name), as well as rights to the Austin, Morris, and Wolseley marques. Nanjing Automobile Corporation bought the rights to the MG name. In December 2007, Nanjing and SAIC announced their merger, thus reuniting many of the marques of the former Austin Rover group.
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