Proton has loaned the Lotus Group £40 million, or RM272 million ringgit, to cover the Lotus Group’s third successive year of losses. This loan will be converted to equity, which actually means Proton is basically giving Lotus money in exchange for more shares. While new CEO Michael Kimberley has a 5-year plan to turn Lotus around, it is not expected to return to profitability until after 2009.
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After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
in othr words,its jus increasing its stake in lotus…rather than jus giving money….the lotus turnaround wd always take few yrs to be done since its a small operation..thats y thy r building their own platforms,chassis and engines..not only to be used in future protons n lotus cars,bt to be sold to whoever is interested in thm….atleast this will kill those rumours who said p1 wants to sell lotus
Real bleeding!
I think RM 272 Millions paid for handling technology. LoL, worth it ? Or P1 financial planner failed his/her math ?
Bring Lotus technology into Formula 1 "Spyker" then give the big boys a run for their money. Lotus was the "Big Boys" not so long time ago in Formula 1.
Check out this link http://www.f1page.com/f1lotus.html We might see Malaysian's own F1 team, besides we already have the A1 team.
Real scary figures.
Totally Unbelievable.
I don't get it though, why would Proton want a bigger stake in Lotus? So that they can use their technology? And that thing about Lotus running at a loss until after 2009, wow, that's scary.
another super smart and brilliant move by Proton, this is the result when the rakyat support daylight robbery company like Proton. 10k bookings for the milotin on wheels no dignity no safety saga and they are throwing away money. and please remember the amount so much less then the previous super duper flop business deal in the whole wideworld by 34o millions sell over 1 euro. yes worst deal in the whole wideworld malaysia boleh. shameless Proton people suck rakyat money until dry, sell cheap high specs to foreigners give crap to rakyat.
For 272 mil, we can hv lot of CKD lotus cars here…
capitalise the loan can be good, can also be bad..
base on the investment made by lotus to revive the company.. i think the debt incured by Lotus are a small sum for future development.. and with Proton getting more control over Lotus.. i think it is a good investment in the sense that Proton will have bigger say in Lotus decision making.. which can end up being screwed along the way..
but heck.. i am not surprise of the losses made by lotus… as we all know, lotus target audiences are the enthusiasts… people who understand the purpose of driving a lotus car… those of us that are not enthusiats will think of a better way to spend 250,000 worth of ringgit like buying an apartment or getting a practical car or even get a Evo or Subaru Impreza… majority of the younger generation are base on power and speed.. sadly, we only get that from big engine CC and the marketing image instilled by the company…
whereas for lotus all this while is into their tech and production.. minimal into marketing… oh well… lets hope proton is smart enough to leverage on the handling criteria and someone in lotus or proton to push for a bigger marketing budget…
Really EATING ICE-CREAM in WINTER time. Wrong timing!
before tun mahathir resign from pm, proton is trusted by malaysian, proton is stable, proton is like moving on the time by time…but when this pak lah governs, proton is like nothing and become worst time by time…this show that political muchly involved in business.thts why we see proton is goin down.believe me.its all politics.
i think every household will get a Lotus……..
sell lotus….welcome VW, VW got bugatti which previously own lotus, technology is there
Bleed or no bleed, when in red, gov will inject new blood and keep on bleeding some more.
'''pkimalaysia said,
March 27, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
before tun mahathir resign from pm, proton is trusted by malaysian, proton is stable, proton is like moving on the time by time…but when this pak lah governs, proton is like nothing and become worst time by time…this show that political muchly involved in business.thts why we see proton is goin down.believe me.its all politics.'''
before tun resign, the only difference is that the cover looks better only. before and after, many of us hated P1 as usual, quality and service is consistenly so bad for the price we pay. after tun resign, some small degree of imported/refurbished car 'liberisation' occured, and this kills P1, because P1 cannot stand on its own. P1 is an infant that can't grow up even after sucking expensive milk powder for 30 years, wasting fund and chasing away foreign investment. many financial and economic 'mess' are inherited.
Why dont they bring the Lotus plant here and save more?.. UKPound too high.. they can use the so-called high-tech & modern T.Malim Plant .. and produce more lotus from msia… just leave the R&D in UK…
Now i know the money they earn from SAGA went… LOL! But i think is a lot of money use in Lotus.. Why now P1 use it on our own new cars first, getting more quality and advance technology cars… Even lotus cars still using Toyota's engine… You better get more better R&D on system running engine, at least a VVT or timing chain engine…