Paying the buyer?

At BMW's Munich headquarters, managers were not prepared to keep financing Rover's losses

Rover's left-overs, the mass market car production plants, will be disposed of in a way that causes BMW the least harm.

Despite the massive disposal costs there is a sense of relief here, that finally the financial pain for BMW may soon be over.

A terminal case

Pulling the strings at BMW is the Quandt family. It has the single biggest stake in the firm and a huge influence over the direction of the group.

In recent months the family has become increasingly vocal about the financial harm caused by the continuing huge losses at Rover.

For the Quandt family and the management it's now clear that the time has come to finally cut those losses.

The political fall-out may be uncomfortable for a while, but from the executive floors at BMW HQ, short-term discomfort may seem like a small price to pay for freeing BMW from the millstone that Rover has become.

It says it all that here the Rover Group is called the "English Patient" - a sad case whose long-term prognosis is terminal.