Manganese Bronze, one of the main manufacturers of London black cabs, has signed an agreement with electric vehicle maker Tanfield to make battery powered taxis that should hit the streets by mid 2009.

Hmm struggling aren't they?

Taxi!

It will be the Shanghai cabs soon...



China set to take control of London black cabs.


China's largest independent carmaker is poised to take control of Manganese Bronze, maker of London's black taxi, as another slice of Britain's car making heritage looks set to fall into the arms of a foreign owner.

Sluggish sales of the world's most recognised taxi have prompted Manganese Bronze to consider offering more shares to the Geely Group, the Chinese company which already owns a 23 per cent stake.

The company, which reported its results for the year ending December 31, said that a placing to Geely to fund vehicle assembly, development and distribution would be priced at 70p per share and would give the group a controlling stake in Manganese.

The placing has been agreed with two of the company's biggest shareholders but the company is adamant that ceding control to Geely will not mean the end of manufacturing at the company's works in Coventry.

Shares in Manganese Bronze have traded in the range of 80 to 90p in recent weeks, but hit a high of 238p last summer.

An equity placing to Geely will fully cement our relationship, enhance the groups capital base and see the potential for the group to expand into the assembly and distribution of Geely vehicles, John Russell, the Manganese chief executive, said.

Manganese is already a 48 per cent shareholder in a joint venture with Geely in China called Shanghai LTI, which makes cabs for the international market.

Geely has shown an interest in Western carmakers, having agreed in December to buy Volvo from Ford.

The placing is dependent upon agreements being finalised with Geely for the distribution of taxis in Europe and the sale of a Geely saloon car in the UK.

Manganese said that it had sold only 1,724 London taxis in the key UK market last year, down from 1,951 in 2008.

It said that it was moving body panels and chassis production from Coventry to Shanghai this year, after its UK coating supplier announced plans to shut down in August.

The move would further the companys ties with China and lead to the loss of 60 jobs, leaving Manganese with 300 employees - down from a pre-recession peak of about 500.

Seven weeks after issuing a profits warning which sent its shares down 20 per cent, the taxi maker said that the recession had particularly affected its core London market. Shares in the company fell 0.5p to 85p in early trading today.

Total revenue for 2009 was 73.1 million, down from 77.2 million in 2008. The company posted pre-tax losses of 7.3 million, an improvement on the previous years loss of 14.2 million, although that included a 4 million impairment charge relating to the recall of taxis with radiator problems. The forecast was for a pre-tax loss of 6.8 million.

2009 was a difficult year for our UK taxi operation with significant discount and sales incentivescombined with price pressure from fragile UK suppliers, Mr Russell, the chief executive, said.

Current trading continues to be adversely impacted by the wider economic environment.

Increased warranties, which rose after Manganese recalled a number of taxis, had dented operating profits, the company said. The lack of availability of finance was a major issue for the company, restricting international sales to 212 vehicles. Manganese now had higher levels of inventory than would be ideal.

No dividend will be paid for 2009 and will not be paid until the company returns to profitability, it said.

The company confirmed that it planned to transfer its listing to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to meeting UK Listing Authority requirements over the control of assets.

77p now...keep shorting.

65p now...great

47p as expected...20p on the way.

45p for me and I will BUY

This taxi is going downhill... no brakes included!

looks like a one way trip.,.

Frank Zhao and Lawrence Ang, non-executive directors of the Company, have resigned with immediate effect.

BAYLIS - 14 Jun 2010 18:26 - 63 of 66
45p for me and I will BUY


And did you? They closed at 45p two days ago. And at 41.25p yesterday.

Hey Juzz - How you keeping? Not seen you around for a while.

Hi Gausie. Been doing other things. Like ebaying house contents ahead of a likely move to Herefordshire next Spring. And tootling around in a campervan. Done very little share trading - just dabbling now and then.

man after my own heart, campervaning's great, only draw back, got to wait for school hols to get away. lol Weekends down on Exmouth sea front fun though.,.

Juzzle - hope you've done the Alfa engine conversion - those old VW's take on a fabulous new persona when they get the Alfa boxer engine.

Surely for a camper van, you want VW Van with a GT3 Engine

Gausie - no such luxury. Currently using a 28 year old VW with a 1.6 engine. Got a bigger slightly newer VW van (a Compass Navigator 310RL), but old Rosie is favourite. She's for sale on webbo.weebly.com but quite likely to keep it. Both vans owned by my partner not me.

Apologies to other viewers for the off-topic diversion. Maybe I should launch a campervan thread ;o)

EDIT: And no sooner said than done. Epic is CVAN

Meanwhile no respite for MNGS. I see one highly respected trader on Robbie Burns's thread across the way considers it could go bust.

Still heading down... great short.

31p now... keep heading downwards.