Administrators at MG Rover will spend the weekend considering around a dozen offers after giving potential bidders for all or part of the group until yesterday to show they had the cash to back their plans.

The MG TF sports car line is understood to be the subject of a number of competing offers but the prospect of a bid to buy the whole of the MG Rover business is rated as low.

Chapman Automotive, an Essex-based engineering consultancy, has put together a US-backed offer, while a team of former MG Rover executives wants to revive the Austin Healey marque as part of its plans for the sports car unit. The Welsh Development Agency is also reported to be interested in the sports car assets.

Yesterday the MG Rover crisis claimed another 200 jobs when the body-panel maker Stadco announced that it is to close its Coventry plant next year. Stadco cut the workforce by 230 immediately after MG Rover appointed administrators and said it now felt there was no alternative to closure.

"We have been hoping something would emerge from the ashes of MG Rover but it is now clear that nothing substantial will. We have also explored other opportunities to support a reduced business but it has not been possible to produce a plan," said Stadco's managing director, Andrew Morris.

Amicus, the trade union, said Stadco was acting with "undue haste". Peter Coulson, an official, said: "This is another devastating blow for Coventry, which has already seen job losses in the last few months at Peugeot, Massey Ferguson and Marconi."

The taskforce set up to assist the West Midlands to cope with the impact of the collapse of MG Rover said yesterday that it had helped 100 workers find new jobs. More than 5,000 workers at the Longbridge plant have been made redundant.