BMW yesterday ended its six-year expansion into Britain with the disposal of its Rover Cars subsidiary and Longbridge plant to London-based venture capitals, Alchemy Partners.

The deal is likely to cost BMW about £2bn and was followed today by the sale of the prodigious Land Rover brand to Ford Motor Company for an estimated £1.75bn. This will leave BMW with just the new mini model, which it intends to build at the existing Rover factory at Cowley, near Oxford.

Likely repercussions are that around half Rover's 7,500 Longbridge workers will lose their jobs, but far greater number of associated jobs could also be affected.