Press Releases

Finalisation of Chinese joint venture

22nd June 2007

Manganese Bronze Holdings plc, the leading manufacturer of the distinctive London black taxi, is delighted to announce that it has finalised the establishment of its joint venture with Geely to produce the London taxi, a limousine and two large saloon cars in Shanghai. 

Today, the final stage of the process was completed when 5.7 million New Ordinary Shares, which have been issued to Linkstate Overseas limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely, were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange. These shares, which rank pari passu in all respects with the existing shares, are subject to lock-up arrangements as outlined in the recent circular to shareholders. Consequently, Geely now has an interest in 5,700,000 Ordinary Shares of 25p, representing 22.83% of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company, which as of today's date is 24,961,921 shares.

Manganese Bronze will now work closely with Geely to finalise the process of commencing production. The planned capacity of the Shanghai LTI facility is 40,000 vehicles, with production ramp-up starting from mid 2008.

John Russell, Chief Executive of Manganese Bronze, said;

“We are delighted to have finalised our Chinese joint venture with Geely.  Securing a low cost manufacturing base and becoming a multi vehicle manufacturer and distributor are key elements of our growth strategy.  We look forward to updating the market on our production plans as these are agreed in the next few months.”

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