BMW has revealed it held talks with Toyota, Ford, Vauxhall and Volkswagen on the sale of Rover Cars before striking a deal with Alchemy Partners. The admission was made by Werner Samann, Rover chairman and chief executive, who was giving evidence to the House of Commons trade and industry select committee.

Last month's negotiations stalled because each of the four manufacturers were interested in doing a deal only if it included gaining a stake in BMW.

Samann said: 'None was interested in buying the package. The BMW company is not for sale.' He also said, despite the possibility of a bid from and the fact that BMW was still open to offers, it was not confident of receiving anything better than the Alchemy proposal.