Proton Holdings Bhd has just announced a Q4 net profit of 236.4 million ringgit, compared to 915,000 ringgit during the same period the previous year.
Sales climbed from 1.26 billion ringgit up to 1.72 billion ringgit for the financial year of 2007 (which Proton attributed to the Persona and Saga), resulting in a net profit of 202.9 million ringgit.
Don’t be shocked that profit before tax for the financial year was listed as RM162.2 million, but somehow net profit for the financial year ended up more than the profit before tax. It’s probably due to tax refunds or something similiar from prior periods.
For the new financial year which will end on the 31st of March 2009, Proton plans to improve its export performance, with the Saga set to be launched in Proton’s major export markets from June 2008 onwards. We’ll get to see whether foreign media share the enthusiasm of a large amount of people here in Malaysia that are happy with the value that the Proton Saga gives. I’m very curious how the Saga will be priced in markets outside of Malaysia, which will decide what budget cars it will go against.
As for production levels, Proton is planning to increase its current production level of 6,400 units monthly up to 8,000 units monthly in the next few months. Production levels were only about 4,500 units a month before April 2008. This is in efforts to meet high demand for its Proton Persona and Proton Saga cars. Last I heard, even the automatic version of the Proton Waja CPS has a waiting list because of fleet purchases.
The Proton MPV is still set to be launched in early 2009, so we should expect to see on-road sightings of the MPV sometime before the end of the year. After its local debut, the MPV will make its way to export markets like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam in 2010, and China in 2011.
UPDATE: If you take a look at their full Q4 financial results report document, you will find that on page 8 it is report that Proton received an R&D grant from the government under the National Automotive Policy amounting to a total of RM194 million.
The NAP encourages local investment through various incentives such as R&D grants and excise duty exemptions. So for Proton, the benefits from the NAP are RM194 million worth of R&D grant money, an unknown amount of excise duty exemptions through the Industrial Adjustment Fund. The RM194 million is registered under Other Operating Income, which accounts for more than half of the total of RM329.3 million worth of Other Operating Income for the financial year ending 31st of March 2008.
Another interesting item is the sale of the rights to use Intellectual Property for RM32 million: this is the Jinhua Youngman Europestar RCR deal which involves rebadged left hand drive Proton GEN2s sold in China, as explained on page 10.
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hi paul, was it a typo on 915,000 million? thought it should be thousand rather than million? but anyway, proton seems to be growing fast and have a huge improvement in the financial statement. so maybe it’s time to consider removing all sort of “tax refund or something”.
Congrat proton! now bring to us Neo CPS
good job proton… since you’ve no longer been controlled by the government, bring in the big engines… hehehhee….
Congrats proton, but I feel a bit bitter as foreign cars are damm expansive…
nothing to be proud of, unless it fights on an open market
Well! If look closely, it should be gross loss of RM 170,873,000. Although the sales has increased, the operating expenses also has increased. The net profit mainly from the Other Operating Income of RM 329,332,000.
Is proton really making profit by selling cars?? The Other Operating Income may be come from sales of shares or fixed assets.
This is just my personal view.
when will proton enter american market?
nothing to be proud of, unless it fights on an open market…..
HEY chery,are you malaysian…proud r a little bit
actually proton is on the right track now…
so,how Tun?syed zainal is better than his mahaleel
Mahaleel was and is a loser..the new md has put proton in a more focused direction..wish and hope for the best for proton..in regards to the open market, recently our pm made a statement that the duties are actually lower on CKD models but its the manufacturers are keeping prices high in regards to maintaining good secondhand values for its current customers..if that is true, then these guys are making a lot of profit and consumers must boycott these foreign CKD manufacturers until they give us a better deal..chery, check out this site..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5SRyG6UR2A
So the profit including the RM194 million grant from the G? 202.9 million minus 194 million = 8.9 million? Think about it.
Notinng to be proud off with heavy handed policies and aid given by the government.
You’d have to be pretty crappy to loose money even with these aids.
I just got my Persona last Friday, so far very satisfied. Proton has bright future if it continues to produce the new car and not just rely on Persona and new Saga
jflee169 was right.
Proton is not making money (operational-wise) actually by looking at the Operating Profit (RM5.63M minus RM5.8M). Operating loss at around RM170 million. This shows that the sales volume for FYE2007 is not good enough for Proton to break even.
But this can be overcome once Proton achieves higher sales & exports volume.
chery, to be fair to proton, they’re already competing today on a level playing field in over 20 countries that proton’s are exported to today.
the R&D grant was given to proton because they spent 600 million on R&D last year and that any automotive company in malaysia who did the same can also enjoy these benefits under the nap. As azrai said it, even without the grant, proton is still profitable, although small, but still a huge difference from over 200 million loss the previous year
so its definitely not “aid” as 4G63T put it or even a loss.
Wiki entry excerpt for Proton:
“With a “level playing fieldâ€, within the confines of CEPT[15] (which at the moment allows a maximum 5% import duty) using existing FOB prices, an ASEAN (Thai-made) Toyota would sell for within 10% of a comparable Proton, and would probably result in the devastation of Proton the company.”
Stop wasting my (taxpayers) money. =)
BanyakMasukWorkshop, i think Chery means local market. Of course foreign country they are in open market, Proton so big face till Taiwan(example) govenrment need protect them ? And quality/spec in those proton cars in foreign car are much better … this make me piss off ….
TAHNIAH !
BanyakMasukWorkshop said,
May 27, 2008 @ 8:38 am
chery, to be fair to proton, they’re already competing today on a level playing field in over 20 countries that proton’s are exported to today.
the R&D grant was given to proton because they spent 600 million on R&D last year and that any automotive company in malaysia who did the same can also enjoy these benefits under the nap. As azrai said it, even without the grant, proton is still profitable, although small, but still a huge difference from over 200 million loss the previous year
so its definitely not “aid†as 4G63T put it or even a loss.
——————–without aid i think proton will be in the red. deep deep red
as expected Proton will make profits from both Saga and Persona,not a good idea anymore for hatchbacks and 2doors…
BanyakMasukWorkshop said,
May 27, 2008 @ 8:38 am
chery, to be fair to proton, they’re already competing today on a level playing field in over 20 countries that proton’s are exported to today.
———-
Fair enough if you use that argument.
Anyone know jsut how much “profit” those oversea operating centres are generating?? I wont be surprised if they are in the red. Seriously.
R&D is not considered operational expense?
If the government grant contributes directly to the R&D costs, then it has inexplicitly helped the books.
Do you know much nicer my books would look if I didn’t have to spend R&D money? lol.
i totally agreed with Iflee169 and Normaluser. Based on the income statement, proton is making loss. They are selling their car at loss. Beside the income statement should show what is the gross profit margin of the company.
once P do not received an R&D grant from the government under the National Automotive Policy amounting, the profit sure in RED!! no need to argue de..
base on current status, very clear that P still need help from P to keep survive!
There is a report in chinapress stating that one of the other operating income might come from sale of intellectual property right (IPR) to Youngman Automobile, China.
The best answer is to ask the board of directors and the auditors of Proton. For those investors, don’t 100% rely on the financial statement! There is something called creative accounting! Actually, at the end of the day, it’s the board of directors to decide what figures to put, auditors just follow only.
No one knows what is the “actual” operating expenses in the statement such as entertainment expenses, directors fees and remunerations, travelling expenses etc……
One questions to be asked, did proton really “look” into costs cutting? If can’t increase sales, reduce costs, simple logic!!
Honestly, do you guys really believe the numbers, from Proton?
Roti Naan and all,
For me, I don’t believe a single company numbers in the financial statement in Malaysia or may be other countries too.
what is to congratulate a company financial reports with a bracket (lost) and using government fund (our tax $$) and in the same time the government jacked up the price that we need to pay for a car, where you paying a honda price for USA for a kancil in Malaysia, and you still think they are going the correct direction? Pronton has no way to survive outside Malaysia, and ironically they might need to sell it cheaper outside of Malaysia. Now for us Malaysians, you want to congratualate Proton?
Some proton researchers applied the R&D fund through “developing” some products that the market is widely available, and their only aim is getting the fund. Now you believe their R&D? Its our tax payers $$.
pippen
just a quick word, the biggest beneficiary for govt. research aid in Australia is auto industry, same goes for US and Japan.
Amount of R&D spent by Proton is big
Whole country suffers for the benefit of Proton… is this a wise decision??
Where are your hybird and extended ev? Not doing Malaysia boleh means not doing for the people that helped Proton. Don’t potong janji, Proton.