Staff at Rover Ireland were assessing the news from Munich yesterday but there was little information on what the future might be for the company here.
A company spokeswoman, Ms Breda Martin, said: "We have the statement from BMW. As for Ireland, I don't think I can clarify that at this point in time. "Things should become a little clearer over the next few days."
Rover Ireland, located at the Sandyford Business Centre in Dublin, employs 20 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rover and thus under the control of BMW in Munich. It markets Rover and MG cars, the Mini and Land Rover vehicles. As Mini is being retained by BMW and confusion surrounds the fate of Land Rover, there is speculation that the Irish company will be broken up, with Mini going to the BMW Irish importer, Motor Import Ltd.
Irish-owned Motor Import, based at the Naas Road in Dublin, is part of the Frank Keane Group, employing 130 people, whose other motor importing activity is Mitsubishi.
Mr Keane first acquired the BMW franchise 33 years ago, building it into one of the most successful prestige brands on the Irish car market. Last year, 2,666 new BMWs were registered, but already this year registrations are 1,584, up 62 per cent on the same period in 1999.
Rover, too, has performed strongly here. Last year, 3,615 cars and 1,034 Land Rovers were registered. So far this year, 2,036 Rover cars and Land Rover vehicles have been sold, 43 per cent up on 1999.
