DRB-Hicom to announce Proton’s new management team in two weeks, thorough review of Group Lotus on the cards

DRB-Hicom to announce Proton’s new management team in two weeks, thorough review of Group Lotus on the cards

DRB-Hicom Bhd today held an extraordinary general meeting to get shareholders’ approval for its 42.74% stake purchase in national carmaker Proton. It went through, and in the following press conference, Group MD Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil revealed some interesting details.

There has been plenty of speculation on the top jobs at Proton after DRB-Hicom announced its majority stake purchase, and that’s fully expected, since current Proton chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh was DRB’s rival for the stake, leading a so-called “management buyout”.

Khamil told reporters that a new management team for Proton will be revealed in two weeks time “There will be improvements to the management. There can be new faces, I will not discount the fact, and there can be old faces. There is always a blend of old and new for continuity as well as for providing new ideas and talents”.

DRB-Hicom to announce Proton’s new management team in two weeks, thorough review of Group Lotus on the cards

No names were mentioned, so we’ll have to wait for the announcement. “At the moment, I’ve not put forward to the DRB-Hicom Board of Directors the candidates who will or may helm or assist in helming Proton,” he added.

Management aside, Proton’s Group Lotus subsidiary is another subject of much speculation. Will DRB-Hicom persist with the costly turnaround plan currently in progress? Or will the new owner hive off the loss making division?

“After this, we will be in a position to evaluate the situation in Lotus to take a further step, whether it will remain in the stable or be disposed of,” he said, adding that DRB-Hicom was open on the matter and wanted the best for its new acquisition.

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

Comments

  • terminator on Mar 15, 2012 at 12:22 am

    sack Mahathir as advisor please

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  • drMpower on Mar 15, 2012 at 12:27 am

    u know.. just in case they wanna do a pingu on lotus…

    heres my 5 dollars.

    u never know, do u.

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  • evolva on Mar 15, 2012 at 12:59 am

    Sir Tony Fernandes is going to enjoy and have a BIG SMILE on his face seeing the soon to be vanquished GL…hehe

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  • mystvearn on Mar 15, 2012 at 2:40 am

    Lets see how good or bad DRB do.

    If they sell Lotus, remove DSZ, agree collaboration with VW (rebadge) then its a very bad move. We can say that DRB is not interested in making cars, but more interested in asset striping Proton for what its worth. DSZ is doing his best finally able to steer the Proton brand into something people actually desire rather than some predecessor who wants to rebadge everything and sell as Proton. Ford sold Jaguar Land Rover to Tata. Look who is laughing now.

    Some people will say this is a good move, cheaper VW-rebadge ala-Skoda, no more protection for proton, I don’t really think so as there is no longer need for a manufacturing plants in Malaysia. Love it or hate it, Proton provides a lot of jobs to other companies (which supply and make parts). If all CKD, become like P2, then a lot of jobs lost.

    Lets say gomen no longer support Proton, they will find other methods of taxing people. Thinking that car prices will suddenly become cheaper because of gomen has nothing more to protect is not that realistic. I suspect that once Goods Service Tax (GST), all those “penyelarasan harga” becomes a reality, then gomen will say, no more tax on continental cars. I am not sure then if the purchasing power then will be smaller for the rakyat.

    Remember that in 1936 Japan government protect Toyota-then few years later got guts to force other overseas makers out of Japan with tough legislation. In 2009 had to bail Toyota out. We can see that the similar tactic is being applied by our own gomen. Only problem is, Toyota has a head start compared to proton which started building its own car in 2000 (Proton Waja-in house designed).

    When comparing with the Koreans, we can say that they are too started earlier than Malaysia, later than Japs.Also began like Proton, rebadging stuff. Then Hyundai started making the Pony in 1975. In 1990 started breaking into US. Late 90’s invested heavily to upgrade themselves nearer to Honda and Toyota in terms of quality. What Koreans had aside from time is that oil was cheap in America for a long time. Only recently Americans looking into fuel efficient vehicles. Also, Koreans went into localization overdrive in trying to source parts for making own car.

    I can really see what Tun M wanted to do with Proton. Make a car company, then figure out the supply chain. This can be considered a short-cut strategy since its easier to have a car manufacturing company when you have the supplier line first. Only time will tell if this overall project succeeds or fails. Currently, up to before DSZ, proton was going up with rebadging, rested on laurels with massive sales, neglected quality, people move away from the brand. I would like to say mismanagement as the main cause of previous demise makes the brand undesirable. When people bash Proton, they forget that other car makers have had a long head start, but they have a point when bashing-provided it is not the newer cars. If the P3-21A or the Preeze or whatever it is called gets favourable reviews, and bashers still bashing, then ignore them :P

    If Proton can survive another 10 years in its current state (good management) without government bailouts, I really think it can be on par with Mitsubishi in terms of brand recognition. Once proton produce a good number of desirable cars in succession, people will buy. No need fancy advertisement.Word of mouth from satisfied owners are more than enough in this twitter generation. Only problem to that is hopefully no asset stripping, or interference from gomen when they see proton starts to be successful. There is the saying, “don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg”. The gomen may need to “influence” people’s purchasing power towards proton till then. I am not sure if DRB/Gomen is willing to stomach something very long term.

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    • RedBeanBun on Mar 15, 2012 at 8:36 am

      only question, those suppliers you sure all provide jobs in Malaysia? or source from China for the lousiest parts, and supply to Protong?

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      • mystvearn on Mar 15, 2012 at 4:56 pm

        It depends on the cost and logistics. Lets say in worse case scenario a lot is sourced overseas, you still need to hire people in Malaysia if proton is manufacturing/designing/building and not CKDing cars. Paint technology, artist, sculpture, model making needs people skilled in those field. Compared to CKD you are just putting cars together like lego blocks will ultimately results in nothing. Malaysians get jobs, but not skills.

        There is no way for Proton to not source from overseas. If they did not source from Bosch CAMPRO engine will suffer. too much cost. Proton cannot just put all money in developing engine, that is why you see one engine in different models, same way with car platform.
        Important things for proton are:
        1. Be a profitable company.
        2. Once profitable then can invest in R&D.
        3. When you do the 1. and 2. consistently, then there will come a time where you don’t need to source outside the country.

        It is not in proton’s interest to source crappy material if it will diminish brand value. DSZ knows this, that was why he spend a lot of time talking about QC, with the Savvy and TUV thing. All things done to regain public support.

        On another note. now some UK companies are closing their China manufacturing operations due to cost and quality is not worth it. As China’s consumerism appetite grows, it becomes more expansive to outsource from there. Even Chinese businessmen are outsourcing manufacturing to Burma, Vietnam, and Africa.

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    • Mohd Hafiz Yusof (@_hafiz) on Mar 15, 2012 at 9:34 am

      Great views mate. I believe DZS did a good job since he began with Proton, he was serious in fixing legacy issues in Proton and it isnt an easy feat with many old guards & mindset of the past. I only hope he will remain in Proton but that could be a slim chance as we dont know what DRB is actually up to

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    • Contradicting view that you have there m8.

      You hope P1 survive another 10 years without Gov bail but also hope that DRB doesn’t let go of mass loss making department.

      DRB have to make sure that P1 doesn’t need bail, if things are to be let go, they must go for that we do not want to pay for it any longer. They should be able to stand on their own feet now. (with some protection from G but not charity from G or us)

      Desperate times need desperate measures. It’s lucky that P1 need not follow the fate of the good old Saab.

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      • mystvearn on Mar 15, 2012 at 4:41 pm

        Yes, that is true. However history has taught us that gomen will bail out “big/closed tied” Malaysian companies regardless how much assets gomen (or Khazanah Nasional) have placed in it. If DRB flops, gomen will come in. I don’t see DRB going bust anytime soon and hopefully will never have to see that.

        All depends on DRB. Do they want to build cars or assemble cars. Hopefully they don’t see Tanjung Malim as another CKD factory. DRB has good things going for it, because it has lots of CKD tie-ups, surely can source the same parts for future proton cars to keep cost down while maintaining quality.

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  • stop proton news ! boring and sick!

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  • Jaybond on Mar 15, 2012 at 8:18 am

    I don’t think Datuk Seri Khamil will ever allow another rebadging exercise for Proton, and as he stated in the press, it’s a step backwards and I think most people would agree with this. What DRB-Hicom could do for Proton by capitalizing on the VW partnership, is to look into the possibility of platform or even powertrain sharing – this is a more feasible move, not copying the whole car lock stock and barrell. Hopefully, Inspira will be the last of the rebadging thing. Even though the development cost is very cheap in the short run, it could tarnish the Proton image in the long run. As for Lotus, hopefully DRB-Hicom could be more patient, give them a chance for at least another 2-3 years, but they must start to seriously look into creating better synergies within the DRB-Hicom group and buckle up for better cost reduction (e.g components or technology sharing) and marketing strategies.

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  • Jolly_idiot on Mar 15, 2012 at 8:34 am

    Sounds like drb-hicom is very lcly after taking proton. What they have actually? A contract with vw for local ckd? Other than that what else they have?

    I may say DSZ is doing a good job steering proton to a right direction. He’s the man who really do things rather than previous useless junk that only know how to make money but forget quality.

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    • A contract with vw for local ckd means that the Tanjung Malim plant can finally be fully utilized.

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    • superman on Mar 15, 2012 at 12:00 pm

      DSZ is the man… I hope the keep him. he has been under lots off pressure by adviser TM and others and he has done a great job.

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  • car lover on Mar 15, 2012 at 8:37 am

    The main point is, PROTON better not exist for malaysia…….. We even cannot make a deal to market proton cars in our nebourhood like Indonesia and Thailand………. Another thing, PROTON is one of the reosons on why car’s import duty is remain high. Thanks to Mahathir…….huhu

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  • Paint on Mar 15, 2012 at 8:51 am

    Ok, now that everything is officially, we can do away with exorbitantly high import and excise duty. Time to let Proton compete in open market.

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  • bmpower on Mar 15, 2012 at 9:10 am

    don’t sell lotus.

    proton without lotus is nothing!

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    • Proton with Lotus could well become nothing as well, due to bankruptcy.

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  • What you can expect from conglomerate like DRB with deep expertise in automotive like Proton. I couldn’t think we going to forgo Lotus Cars after billions of investment made. At least, we deserved to witness one new generation of Lotus Esprit-Elite-Eterna-Élan turn from concept to reality. Only one model launch and getting feedback is ok

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  • SakMyDik on Mar 15, 2012 at 9:31 am

    all i can say is… doomsday for PeroDua is coming.

    sucks big time with stupid overpriced model they had.

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  • RedLine on Mar 15, 2012 at 9:57 am

    I think DRB should reduce the number of models that Proton produce. Currently there are too many models in the same/similar size and price range. They should focus on further strengthening the quality, rather than quantity. If Proton has less models, then they can put more resources on improving and enhancing their cars to become global cars.

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  • Joyrider on Mar 15, 2012 at 11:59 am

    Making better quality Proton vehicles and expecting these vehicles to be exported to ASEAN countries (before Globally) may seems more difficult then it seems.
    From the economy trade point of view, most car company would have some sort of investment in the country before they can successfully sell their cars in that country by means of pure CBU.
    There is no real reasons why Thailand, Indonesia would desired to support the importation of Proton cars to be sold in their land (of course AFTA implementation on Import Duty benefit still holds).
    From the target customer view points, even if Proton can build better vehicles, it will be not be better than their preferred brands of vehicle, mainly the Japanese brand. Presence of Koreans are relatively weak in Thailand and Indonesia considering their product strength (Again, they are not in the AFTA zone).

    Should Proton maintain as a Manufacturer that survive based on vehicles sales in domestic market? It is a clear cut no by industry experts and even general Malaysian. But the ultimate challenge is how to move forward after all the years of wrong footing and mismanagement of such big company, while global makes have move on with these technological challenging industry.

    Will DRB holds the answer to this? Let’s see…

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  • likehondanotsomuch on Mar 15, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    DRB is on the right track.Proton should have more people like Group MD Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil.Transparent,firm and gets the job done.i like.

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  • ayoyo on Mar 15, 2012 at 10:33 pm

    Dont bring Mahalil back,pleaseeeee…DSZ is the best guy for Proton…

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  • sean ZX10 on Mar 17, 2012 at 1:31 am

    the sole reason of PROTON’s downfall is MAHATHIR. seriously! I know..Dont ask how I know. He’s the advisor of DRB Hicom and godfather to Syed Mokhtar. He wont stop being the advisor to PROTON. It’s all been set up. He made sure PROTON looses and then DRB buys so that nobody like DSZ+Nadzmi will object to what he wants (in the right sentence = vacuum all our money) . Just like MAS. How can Airasia bought 20% of shares. It’s ridiculous and know see…worst loss ever made. Then government will bail…Tony Fernandez buys all shares..owns MAS. Mahathir’s the winner again.

    EVery major GLC companies makes no profits..always loss…why? this corrupted old man wants all for himself.

    my prediction = DSZ will remains. Why? DRB HICOM knows SHIT about making cars from scratch. DSZ will be the money generator and they will be like hungry devil’s children sucking all the money.

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