Phoenix Consortium
| Holding Company | |
| Industry | Automobiles and MG Rover |
| Founded | 2000 - 2006 |
| Headquarters | Longbridge (Birmingham) and Cowley (Oxford) |
|
Key people
|
John Towers, Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson, and John Edwards |
| Subsidiaries |
MG Rover Powertrain Ltd MG Rover Financial Services MG Rover Heritage Ltd MG Sport & Racing Ltd MG Rover Property Holdings Phoenix Distribution Studley Castle Techtronic 2000 |
Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH), also known as the Phoenix Consortium, was a British company formed by four businessmen (John Towers, Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards). Following BMW's break-up of the Rover Group a financially complex deal involving a £500 million "dowry payment" from BMW, resulted in PVH purchasing the Rover marque in May 2000 for the notional sum of £10, relaunching the car company as MG Rover. MG Rover and related companies placed themselves in administration on 8 April 2005.
Four years later and after spending £16m the Government finally released the report investigating the collapse of the company. The report, which was only concerned with dealing with the directors and their actions while MG-Rover Group was still trading, revealed that the five executives involved took £42m in pay and pensions from the troubled firm before it collapsed.
The report also commented on the personal relationship between Nick Stephenson and Dr Qu Li, who was paid more than £1.6m in the 15-month period up to April 2005 for consultancy services. Additionally, fellow Director Peter Beale was accused of installing a software application, Evidence Eliminator, which may have destroyed documentation relevant to the investigation. The investigators further accused Mr Beale of giving "untruthful" evidence during interviews.
In return the Directors have accused the findings of being a whitewash and a witchunt, and it remains unknown the exact details of the actions of key Government Ministers at the time of the collapse.
Conservative business spokesman Kenneth Clarke said it was right the report criticised the Phoenix Four, whose behaviour was "disgraceful". Lord Mandelson said the Phoenix group had not shown an "ounce of humility" about the firm's demise and they owed an apology to the firm's employees and creditors. However his comments that steps will be taken to disbar the five executives have been discredited, and the report at no point uses language stronger than 'inappropriate' in describing the activities of the Group Directors.
Phoenix Venture's main trading businesses are/were:
BMW had acquired the Rover Group in 1994, but by 1999 it had become a major financial liability due to disappointing sales of some of its model ranges. In January 2000, it was reported that UK sales had fallen from more than 190,000 in 1998 to 143,000 in 1999 - a fall of more than 25% in sales for the company, despite overall new car sales increasing by 7%. Even Rover's newest model, the Rover 75 (launched in the spring of 1999), had failed to meet sales expectations.
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