The listed division of China-based Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Geely Auto has withdrawn its plan to purchase the majority stake in the manufacturer of London's black cabs, Manganese Bronze for £14m.

The purchase would have increase the shareholding of Geely from 20 percent to 52 percent.

The company has been under huge losses due to fall in the demand for its taxis and due to increasing competition.

Geely stepped back after the completion of purchase deal of Swedish car-manufacturer, Volvo from Ford Motors for $1.5bn or £960m.

The shares of Manganese Bronze were traded at 36.5p, much below than 70p target price since April and less than 231p traded last year, mainly due to weak sales.

The company posted pre-tax loss of £4.8m for the first half of the year ending on June as sales of its black cabs declined by 13 percent to 803 vehicles in UK.

In 2006, Geely agreed to invest £38.4m into Manganese Bronze in return for the license of London black cab manufacturing in China for overseas marketing and the supply of components to its UK plant in order to reduce the production costs of the TX4.