Land Rover Group - Merger and Break-up

Merger and Break-up

In 1986 British Leyland was renamed the Rover Group in preparation for privatisation. This saw LRG, Leyland Trucks and Leyland Bus re-united into the Land Rover Leyland Group, but with each division remaining operationally separate.

This was a short-lived arrangement. In 1986 Leyland Bus became a private company, the subject of a management buy-out, later being acquired by Volvo. In 1987 the Leyland Trucks division and the Freight Rover van making interests merged with the Dutch DAF Trucks company to form DAF NV, with Leyland DAF as a UK-based manufacturing and sales division. DAF NV was later floated on the Dutch stock exchange. Land Rover was retained by the Rover Group and the latter was sold to British Aerospace in 1988.