LDV’s Russian owner Gaz has agreed to sell the firm Malaysia’s Weststar, according to Guy Jones, LDV marketing director. The UK government has agreed to make a £5m, four-week bridging loan to give Westar time to complete the purchase. Jones says the sale will secure Maxus van production in Birmingham but he could not guarantee that the deal will save all 850 jobs at LDV. The firm was due to go into administration at a court hearing on Wednesday 6 May, but this hearing is now adjourned for a week. Maxus van production at the Birmingham factory stopped in December last year and so far, no date is set for it to restart. “This is clearly a significant development for LDV and a major step towards an exciting new future but there are still major steps to be competed over the next few weeks,” he says. “We will issue further communications as soon as they are available.” He goes on to say the sale process will take another few weeks to complete and the government loan is only to enable the business to keep running in the meantime.
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