Well, the wheels on this one are set to keep on turning. The talk is of course about the three-way bid that’s reputably shaping up for a controlling stake in Proton, with the players being DRB-Hicom, Proton chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh and parties linked to the Naza Group. Each party has apparently submitted a bid to Khazanah Holdings, which has a 42.7% stake in Proton, to seek control of the national carmaker.
Each will undoubtedly have its own game plan, and supposedly, DRB-Hicom’s is thought to include the presence of Volkswagen at some point in the future. The Star reports that a reliable source says that if DRB is successful, it will at a later stage introduce some of its equity to VW, with the view that both parties are to share control and management in Proton.
The report adds that this line of thought could make the bid more desirable, given that the carmaker wouldn’t be under the direct control of a foreign party, which was likely one of the reasons why the negotiations with Volkswagen four years ago never went to ink. VW is keeping mum on the whole affair, it seems, and so is DRB-Hicom, for now.
Not that it’s all done and dusted, of course. Another source with intimate knowledge of proceedings said Khazanah had yet to make a decision on things, and that a round of meetings are set to take place this week between key stakeholders regarding the matter – there’s every possibility that the sale of the stake in Proton might be called off temporarily, at that.
And so it continues to roll.
If that’s the scheme of things to come, Naza should buy the shares and later split them with PSA Peugeot Citroen – ultimately, it will results in more Peugeots and Citroens running our streets and highways!
wouldnt that be nice if it were to happen? :)
nicer to have psa pug citroen tech in proton, not just assembly or rebadge.
Can naza do that?
And who is going to fix that then? Also, you don’t really believe the next Persona will have a hydropneumatik suspension, right? Apart from that there isn’t so much great tech that PSA have and VW doesn’t. Who wouldn’t want a 1.4 liter TSI engine in their Proton?
Also imagine if Proton had access to the up! platform, and can produce their own version. There is almost no difference between the up! and its Skoda and Seat counterparts (apart from how ugly they got), so perhaps it even gets the safety features. A <40k Proton that handles well and is safe, has good FC and is good for city use? Yes please! Everyone would benefit from that, except for Perodua who would have to catch up and bring in the Aygo (that way you'll get PSA tech to Malaysia).
Oh please, ever since VW bought Ital design Giugaro, they got hold of all the copyright to their designs INCLUDING the EMAS, they stole EMAS and rebadge it to VW UP! and dare to call it their own, senang2 ciplak, pastu cuci tangan, pasal nama derang VW….poodah..!
stupid people is stupid.
Okay, you will not believe, but the EMAS is much more sophisticated than the Up!
The EMAS is a electric car with petrol range extender engine, the Up! is simply a car with petrol engine.
BTW: Since when a buyer of a company gets the copyrights for contract work? Proton paid for the design and Proton holds all copyrights, no matter if the owner of Ital design Giugaro is VW, GM, Toyota, Nissan, Renault, the Prince of Wales or Faizal Tahir : The Malaysian Rockstar.
Aren’t they working on the EMAS?
They are, but not using Giugaro’s design anymore, that EMAS you kept seeing in Autoshows remain a concept, the new one probably going to be based on something else. Such a shame.
Now its a DRB/VW vs NAZA/GM tug of war and its heating up!!
Hope that this time around Khazanah will use their
good judgement and not let politics, pride and ego rule the day.!!
Proton, capitalise on this as an opportunity to move forward !!
We don’t want to witness a repeat of a failed collaboration once again.
Good luck !!
Another insider trading example in Malaysia afte E&O and Harvest Court story. Maybe tah’s why Martha Steward was invited last time.
When queried by Bursa the management denied any
discussions or approach by any party for a stake in the company.
Looks like Khazanah and Proton ‘insiders” were the ones
riding and making a killing from this rally.
SC this is outright – ” INSIDER TRADING” !!
TSI wont match our CAMPRO…
If u like VW and champions league, there is AUDI
If u like VW and u are spaniard, you should buy SEAT
If u like VW with lower budget, consider SKODA
later,
If u like VW but poor, then get a Proton
You are right! TSI is way ahead in design and performances and CAMPRO is at the bottom of the shitty pile. No match at all!!!! ;-)
GM is also in the picture but not reported here.
GM Said to Revive Partnership Talks With Malaysia’s Proton: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-08/gm-said-to-revive-partnership-talks-with-malaysia-s-proton.html
GM isn’t interested in buying the controlling 43 percent stake in Proton held by Khazanah. If VW given a stake in Proton, Proton may lose rights to assemble cars for Mitsubishi or GM.
If Mitsubishi, VW and GM want exclusive access to Proton production plant or services, it may be tricky for Proton. The challenge is how to separate/segregate the production plant from 3 or 4 car manufacturers while protecting their respective intellectual property. I don’t think it will be difficult for Proton to do that.
Good idea for Protongkat better close shop sell off factories to Kia Hyundai group.
Finally ex workers still continued employed, much happier pasang kereta Kia Hyundai than pasang kereta kroni.
Suka ? Seronok ?
Bukan ke kereta Hyundai DRB dah pasang?
And Kia NAZA dah pasang?
Hmm, and how sure are you Kia Hyundai gonna invest here in Malaysia?
I have nothing against Korea.
But i’m sick of this kind of people!
And Bloomberg are reporting that discussions are also taking place between General Motors and Proton, although GM have stated they are not interested in Khazanah’s stake:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/gm-said-to-revive-partnership-discussions-with-malaysia-s-proton-holdings.html
VW? Remember what is happening to Suzuki?
Yes.. I support you. VW is monopoly style.. Hitler.
Yup, people never learn, those Krauts only know how to take advantage of other people, they don’t intend to share technology or design or what not, they just want to monopolized every car makers in the world, not enough from having Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Skoda and God knows what else, they want to chase after Proton, it’s just for their own good, the end-user is stupid they only know how to judge face value, “oh, it’d be better for the quality, oh, it’d be very competitive”, Look at Golf GTi, look at that VW, look at that VW” my arse…
In the end, the company will be torn apart and all the hard work all these years will be wasted.
VW did wonders with Seat and especially Skoda though. It can go well, it can go horribly wrong. As always.
SEAT & SKODA is where VW majority shareholder. In case of Proton, it will be more Suzuki type of shareholding.
“The Star reports that a reliable source says that if DRB is successful, it will at a later stage introduce some of its equity to VW, with the view that both parties are to share control and management in Proton.”
1st, DRB is one of 3 muskeeter bidding for P1, clearly act as “front man” dog runner for VW. That is how they have to do it to cannibalize the all powerful vendor cronies! It is a blessing in disguise.
2nd, NAZAK is 2nd choice to be “runner” for Citreon-Pug, also blessing in disguise to shoot at the same target – vendor cronies. But the drawback for this entity is they are “AP King”, which together with vendor cronies benefite from NAP largese.
For 3rd choice, it is not a choice since the end results is still the same, same wine in new bottle only.
Improve it’s operation is the main agenda. Take-over story won’t do any good. Be focus.
what vw and gm interested in are
1. the most, lotus – already secured rm6bill from malaysian banks. with lotus participation in f1, the brand getting bolder each year. after 5 years, if lotus making money, they rip the profits. if it loss, they can sell with 1 dolar and malaysian banks suffer.
2. the least, factory in sea – so no need to put mills to build new factory in thai or indo or philippines
They get into a not too shabby market.
Lotus itself… VW knows how to develop cars, and with the portfolio that VW has (Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat, Skoda, Scania, MAN, Karmann, Suzuki and Italdesign). That is a sweet list of companies, it doesn’t really _need_ Proton.
But being able to sell VW models (more or less) badged as Proton on the Malaysian market? Not too bad, that’s a lot of cars (and not only in Malaysia, they could use Proton as their cheap brand for ASEAN countries, just like they do with Skoda in Europe (or position Proton below Skoda… there is still some room left, if you look at Dacia. They might not want to reduce the image of Skoda too much, so having e.g. Proton would help).
And of course the factories are useful too.
I wonder if old man will agree to have some foreigner having control in the company. But then that bidder is one of his kuncu.
Another merger plan? Msians need cheaper cars. Period.
Typical of this shitty car manufacturer to ‘layer’ all deals that comes to them. Without a JV or collaboration it will not survive nor can it go global. Owning a brand and building up a brand is two different thing which we have learnt from Lotus.
The problem with the shitty Proton company is that it hides behind ‘national interest’ and ‘public interest’ to make a few buggers rich at the expense of the rakyat
If these deals are not ‘layer’ thru DRB or Naza with the multinational going direct as much as they are profit driven but if they fail to deliver on quality we the public can lynch them.However if otherwise these multinationals will use their local ‘partner’ to suppress the rakyat on their expetation on quality.
DRB,NAZA or Datuk Mohd Nadzmi are nothing more than glorified or licensed ‘brokers’ to ‘pau the foreign car players in the Malaysia adding nothing to it except pushing the cost of the car higher.
If Proton was interested in bringing the cost down without compromising on quality for example like the audio accessories they could have use Sanyo Penang factory which supply about 1.5 millions unit annually to North American market who in turn can pass the economy of scale to them but instead DSZ opted to keep Blaupunkt and Clarion because of the ‘layer’ of Spectralink and Irama Sejahtera that have existed.
In a nut shell its politics that drives Proton direction rather than cost and efficiency!!!!
Which do you think this is a better deal: to place Proton future under DRB/VW from politicians?
I would still prefer Management Buyout first. Proton finds its own partner for marriage.
Perhaps Proton/Lotus try JV with VW, Mitsubishi and GM at the same time to understand their corporate internal politics. Use Lotus to sell engineering services to these companies.
There’s another new model from Protongkat that surely jack-up its share price soon
The new Dodge Dart will be rebadge by Protongkat
Since the name like Fart, Proton should rebadge it as new Gen2
Yes Gen2 also sounds like Fart or Kentut/GenTut (add that ‘toot’)
So there you go: Protongkat GenTut and Dodge Fart! PFFTTT!!!
Other than the Tanjung Malim plant, nothing fancy for the new investors. Everything from logistic to sales network, need to revamp and updated. If they can’t get Tg Malim, they does not want it.
End of the day, small investor are the one who suffer with these “genuine rumour”, similar tune play over and over again for so many years, share prices being stir up over and over again, yet small investors in the share market still fall for it.
Proton is not up for sales for sure, That is where the money is. The higher authority knows it. period.
HICOM will scrab all existing model except Saga/Exora, then rebadge all VW Jetta/Passat.
Smaller car be Saga
Mid size Jetta
Big size Passat
MPV Exora
Both Protong and VW will be laughing this way.
Only current VW Jetta/Passat owners crying (not so much anyhow)..unless they pull out the Polo/GTI in rebadge…then every VW owners cry (but those sales numbers are ok)
Sengaja brought up these rumours this time around to jack up the share prices and excite the share market… For all ya know… some parties make money form the shares traded to fund the upcoming election… biasa laa tuu…
entahkan jadi, entahkan tidak… gettin’ TIRED & BORING to hear these endless rumours with NIL result nie…
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/12/business/10076392&sec=business
LANGKAWI: Khazanah Nasional Bhd is selling its 42.7% stake in Proton Holdings Bhd to DRB-HICOM Bhd.
Seems to confirm that DRB-HICOM have manage to get the stake.. But the stupid reason is why another GLC also taking it… make no difference… Just making more ppl to take “advantage” in the process.. If really VW can make a difference in this G control car manufacturer..
“Proton adviser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that Khazanah was selling because it was not pumping more money into Proton, which needed funds for research and development work on new products such as hybrid cars.”