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VW Wins Rolls Royce!!!!!
Looks like VW won the war. Makes you wonder what Cosworth will do for
Audi?
Rusty A. Schlacke
Cedar Rapids, IA
'95 A6 quattro
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Vickers PLC shareholders
overwhelmingly voiced their support Friday to sell its
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. to Volkswagen AG
for 430 million pounds ($700 million).
The London-based industrial concern said the
official count was 5.1 million for the Volkswagen bid
and 109,000 against.
Vickers said Volkswagen provides a parent for
the British luxury car maker with the engineering
capability, resources, brand expertise and global
reach to match Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW)
AG, whose rival bid of 340 million was rejected.
But Rolls-Royce PLC -- a separate company that
makes jet engines and controls the brand name and
logo -- has made it clear it would rather see the
automaker go to BMW, which happens to be its
partner in a jet engine venture.
Rolls-Royce PLC hasn't said whether it will
negotiate with Volkswagen or try to block its use of
the brand name. Asked about that, Vickers
Chairman Sir Colin Chandler insisted that a
25-year-old contract that would let Rolls-Royce
PLC veto the purchase of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
Ltd. by a foreign buyer is legally unenforceable.
"The trademark can't go anywhere else,"
Chandler said. "We exclusively own the radiator, the
flying lady and Bentley."
The shareholder approval, though, came amid
angry nationalistic rhetoric from small investors who
wanted Rolls to remain under British control.
"For God's sake, try and take a broad view for
the country," said Desmond Lake, drawing cheers in
the packed auditorium when he referred to
Volkswagen's history in Nazi Germany.
But with 95 percent of Vickers' shares held by
institutional investors, support for the Volkswagen
bid was a near certainty, analysts and industry
observers said.
In addition, Vickers' position was bolstered by
news that it agreed in principle to sell its Cosworth
engine division to Audi AG, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Volkswagen, for 120 million pounds
cash, plus debt.
-- from staff and wire reports