London black cab firm Manganese Bronze haggles over China price

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Manganese Bronze, which has struggled with falling sales and market share, said Geely had indicated it would be willing to subscribe to 20 million shares but that the price, previously given as 70p a share, was under review.

"This is to reflect recent market conditions and the need to combine a majority shareholding for Geely with raising sufficient capital," the firm said. Its shares were down 3.7% at 52p.

Manganese said the British market, in which it has most of its sales, continued to be uncertain with sales down 6% by the end last month, hurt by the end of the government car scrappage scheme. April trading was also affected by airport closures because of Iceland's volcanic ash cloud as taxi drivers lost out on airport runs.

Alongside handing control to Geely, Manganese is increasingly reliant on its joint venture in China, Shanghai LTI, and is aiming to sell 1,000 vehicles a year outside of the UK.

"The direct and indirect opportunities arising from our Chinese joint venture give the group confidence to endure what we believe will be a continuing difficult UK market in 2010," it said.

Overall vehicle sales at the group fell 10.9% to 623 vehicles by the end of last month.

Manganese said this was roughly in line with its expectations but that the level of weekly orders was lower than forecast, while measures to cut costs would make profit unlikely this year.