Rover chief optimistic

FRANKFURT: The chairman of Rover, Walter Hasselkus, is "very confident indeed" that the carmaker will achieve its goal of returning to profit by the year 2000.

"Everything is in place to achieve profitability at the end of the century," he said last week.

"Admittedly, it also depends to a certain extent on the exchange rate. If the pound should stay very strong for a long period of time it could become a little bit difficult but otherwise we are very confident everything is in place."

Rover is a wholly owned subsidiary of Germany's BMW.

However, BMW's chief executive, Bernd Pischetsrieder, has voiced doubts about whether Rover would be able to meet its goal because the company was being hard hit by the strength of the pound, which made it harder to export.

Rover has lost money ever since BMW bought in 1994.

Hasselkus said Rover would not respond to the pound's strength by reducing the specification on its vehicles to make them cheaper.

"At the end of the day, you have to position your car with the proper specification," he said.

"What one really has to do if the pound stays strong is to cut costs even more, improve productivity or source more internationally to have some kind of a balance."