Ford to buy Rover name

"Ford is going to exercise its right on the Rover licence, notably to protect the image of its British subsidiary Land Rover," the BMW spokesman said, without giving a value for the transaction.

Ford bought Land Rover from BMW in 2000 as well as a right to acquire the Rover brand name.

Business papers had speculated about a possible sale of the Rover brand to China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) for just over $21m.

Fellow Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automobile Corporation bought MG Rover, Britain's last major independent automaker, for £53m after it collapsed last year.

Century-old MG Rover, which produced the Mini and Jaguar, was forced to sack about 6 000 workers after a failed tie-up with SAIC helped push it into bankruptcy.