HOPES that a mystery Asian businessman may save hundreds of jobs at an East Lancs glass factory have been quashed.

Rumours that an entrepreneur may buy the doomed LG Philips factory in Simonstone have been circulating among workers and the local business community.

But the company denied the businessman was going to take the company on as a going concern and said he was interested only in buying equipment.

Two-thirds of staff at the site are to be kept on longer than was planned to finish customer orders before the factory closes. The disappointment comes just days after union leaders revealed they had lost their fight to overturn the decision to close the factory with the loss of 400 jobs.

The factory, which was built in 1955, will cease production by the middle of the year.

A spokesman for LG Philips said: "There was an expression of interest from an Asian businessman.

"But he is not going to buy it as a going concern, staff will not be kept on but he might be interested in some of the machinery.

"Preparations for shutdown are continuing. They are perhaps three weeks later than originally planned as we still have to finish customer orders.

"About two-thirds of the staff at the site are staying on longer than they anticipated."

Graham Coxon, from the GMB union, said: "It would be wrong to give people false hope that it's going to be bought as a going concern. It's just a rumour that started to run."

Last week GMB union officials travelled to Belgium to speak to European bosses but said it was a fait accompli. A compensation package has been negotiated for workers.

The Simonstone Lane factory produced 1.5million TV screens every year and employed a total of 410 staff, 265 full time and 135 temporary.

The closure announcement came last year from plant director Steve Dodd after an announcement that the factory's biggest customer, a Philips-owned cathode ray tube plant in Aachen, Germany, which accounted for 80 per cent of its business, was closing.