Manganese Bronze Holdings Manganese Bronze Holdings Manganese Bronze Holdings plc (MBH) was the holding company of LTI Limited: their sole business in their final years as a company was London black taxicab manufacturing through the LTI subsidiary. MBH was founded in 1899 and was once an important conglomerator of British motorcycle marques. The company acquired the subsidiary Carbodies in 1973, which was involved in the design, development and production of taxicabs. This subsidiary eventually became "LTI Limited", and traded first as "London Taxis International" and then as "The London Taxi Company". The sale of its components division in 2003 left the company with
Austin FX4 transmission and gradually fewer cabs with manual gearboxes were sold. The petrol engine was discontinued in 1973. In 1973, Carbodies' owner BSA, by now confronting imminent bankruptcy, was bought by Manganese Bronze Holdings, who were happy to continue making the FX4. Detail changes, such as burst-proof door locks and push-button door handles, safety steering and moulded rubber overriders (designed because the original tooling for the chrome overriders had worn out) were implemented. In 1982, Carbodies (who had been producing the FX4 for Austin and Mann & Overton) took over the cab's intellectual property rights when BL (Austin's parent company) lost