Has Rover opted for Slovakia as opposed to Daewoo-FSO?

MG Rover is likely to withdraw from negotiations to take over Daewoo-FSO. Rover says it is finding it difficult to accept the proposed share price and will probably choose to invest in constructing a plant in Slovakia. "We are looking for an appropriate investment location in this region," said Rover's spokesman, adding that the plant would use such a site to assemble a new model with average sized engine which should help the company regain profitability in 2005. Meanwhile, Hyundai representatives dismissed this news as false information, believing that Rover had already decided to build a new factory, capable of assembling 300,000 cars yearly, in the Czech Republic. "The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - all these countries must be taken into account," said Hyundai's spokesman Jake Jang. "I cannot reveal whether representatives of the Korean holding have already been, or are in Poland," said Deputy Economy Minister Andrzej Szejna. "We are not revealing the details of our offer because we do not want to make the same mistakes as our predecessors when proposals were outbidded by our neighbors," declared Sebastian Mikosz, deputy president of the Polish Foreign Investment and Information Agency (PAIIZ). (Puls Biznesu, p. 5; Parkiet, p. 8) M.K.