OLEG DERIPASKA, the Russian tycoon behind the Volga car, has emerged as a potential bidder for MG Rover, the collapsed carmaker.

Mr Deripaska, Russia’s second-richest man, has confirmed his interest in buying Rover.

If successful, the deal would see him add the British cars to a collection of assets that also includes the Volga — the car that became standard issue for Russian taxi-drivers, Communist party officials and police.

His company, RusPromAvto produces the car.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Gazeta, Alexander Yushkevich, the deputy chairman of RusPromAvto, said MG Rover was “potentially attractive” to the Russian company.

He added, though, that a decision about buying the Midlands-based company, which went into administration last month after the breakdown of a possible rescue tie-up with China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, could be taken only after a full evaluation of the company.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrators, declined to say whether it had spoken to Mr Deripaska. However, Tony Lomas, one of the administration team, said a credible Russian business had “expressed a real interest in buying all of MG Rover”.

Mr Deripaska, 36, made his fortune in aluminium after taking control of Rusal, the country’s leading producer, in 2000.

Today Rusal is one of the world’s largest private companies with a £2.35 billion turnover and 63,000 employees.

Separately, an Iranian carmaker has bid £20 million for 2,000 Rover cars currently parked at a disused airfield in Oxfordshire. Dastaan Industrial Development said it wanted to buy a further £30 million of finished cars, and expressed an interest in buying Rover production lines to site in a poor region of south-eastern Iran.

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