LDV, the struggling British vanmaker owned by Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, is in danger of imminent collapse and could go into administration as soon as this week, insiders fear.

The Times has also learnt that the Asian group trying to buy the Birmingham-based LDV is Weststar, a Malaysian vehicle importer, trader and sub-contractor. It has an alliance with LDV and has been in talks over buying the business for the past few weeks. Now it is feared that it cannot complete the process in time.

If LDV falls into administration it will be the first vehicle manufacturer to fail in the current recession. So far only automotive suppliers have failed.

A collapse of the vanmaker, which has its roots in the old nationalised British Leyland, could drag down some of its suppliers. They have largely tried to hang on, despite the fact that no vans have been made since the autumn.

LDV has effectively been cut adrift from Gaz, Mr Deripaska’s Russian vehicle-making operation, which bought the British business two years ago. Gaz and Mr Deripaska’s other businesses, the biggest of which is RusAl, the aluminium group, are under severe pressure and the Kremlin has had to offer lifeline loans to the oligarch who was once Russia’s richest man. When LDV’s problems emerged two months ago, there had been interest from Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian motor and engineering group, and an attempt at a management buyout led by Erik Eberhardson, the non-executive chairman of Gaz.

LDV is trying to transform itself into a business producing a significant number of electric vans but the Government has refused all appeals for emergency loans from LDV. The vanmaker has more than 500 workers but it is estimated that it supports several thousand more jobs in the supply chain and the related economy.

Increased fears for LDV’s future came as more restructuring swept through the global automotive industry. Qatar said that it was seriously considering taking a stake in Porsche, which is attempting to take over Volkswagen. Last month an Abu Dhabi state-controlled investment fund took a 9 per cent stake in Daimler-Benz. Yesterday Daimler, which reported a first-quarter loss of ¤1.43 billion (£1.28 billion), finally severed its ill-starred partnership with Chrysler.

The American carmaker, facing a bankruptcy deadline tomorrow, took a step back from the brink yesterday when its biggest lenders reached a deal with the Treasury to cut its debt from $6.8 billion (£4.6 billion) to $2 billion.

Honda reported a first-quarter loss of $2.9 billion, which was less than expected. The carmaker, which has some diversity through owning the world’s biggest motorcycle business, forecast that it would stay in the black in the current year.

It imposed a four-month shutdown at its factory in Swindon, which is due to finish at the end of next month and yesterday said it would mothball six factories in North America for nearly two weeks, beginning next month.

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