BUSINESS trouble-shooter David James is expected to file a £40m bid for MG Rover within 48 hours.

Mr James said he would aim to develop MG as a small-scale "niche" car manufacturer at Longbridge, but has no interest in reviving mass production at the West Midlands site.

Administrator Pricewater-houseCoopers yesterday confirmed it was in discussions with one UK party - understood to be Mr James's Project Kimber consortium - and two overseas firms, known to be Chinese car giant Nanjing and its rival Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, which has forged an alliance with the ex-head of Ford Europe, Martin Leach.

Mr James today said a successful MG would be able to attract other global niche manufacturers to construct their cars at Longbridge, leading to a "big escalation of employment" at the plant.

He told this morning's BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We believe that we can build the MG side of it into a niche car category which we can build on and bring other niche cars from British history into the site as well.

"We also believe that we have a number of major international manufacturers around the world who will rapidly bring their assembly operations for their own niche motor cars to Longbridge. That will provide the impetus for a very big escalation of employment on the site.

"The main difference is that we don't believe in the mass production concept. We do believe in the niche product and that is exactly where we are going with our bid," Mr James said.

In April, almost 6,000 jobs were lost when MG Rover called in administrators after a planned joint venture with SAIC disintegrated.