Proton is expected to announce its strategic partnership agreement with a foreign partner in the first quarter of next year, The Sun reports. The national carmaker is expected to cement the deal on March 31, 2017.
According to deputy international trade and industry minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan, the national carmaker has narrowed the partner shortlist down to three, and is in the process of carrying out an in-depth evaluation of these to pick the most suitable to work with.
He said Proton had issued request for proposals to 14 car manufacturers in June, and in September the company announced that it had identified five potential strategic partners. Earlier reports had intimated that PSA Group, Renault and Suzuki were among interested parties seeking to buy into Proton.
Saying it was important to have a foreign partner to manufacture cars, Ahmad said the upcoming partnership agreement will provide the automaker with a much needed lift. “This will help spur Proton’s research and development, enabling it to become a viable and competitive carmaker at the international level,” he said.
Earlier this year, the national carmaker received a soft loan of RM1.5 billion from the government, which came with several conditions that needed to be met, and one of these was the need to identify a foreign partner. Additionally, a strategic plan to increase its share of the domestic market, as well as to penetrate into international markets, was also required.
No details of the upcoming partnership have been revealed, including that of what percentage the foreign stake will be. Previously, DRB-Hicom said that it will continue to hold a ‘strategic stake’ in Proton, even with a foreign partner in the picture.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
VW, Mitsubishi & FIAT.
Sell it off to China companies!
DongFeng, Great Wall Motor or Geely!
Mitsubishi i dont think so.
Foton, Fukang or Fuqi. No joke look them up.
Cherry, Chang’an and Great Wall
Proton will be better off without DRB HICOM.
Bro..if no local ownership how to justify national car protection status and tax the others…udang di sebalik batu besar la ni..
Local Owner does not need to be DRB, it can be any local crony companies.
I also agree, Proton is in this terrible shape only and only because of DRB-HICOM and their useless show off ways of management which only makes them look like idiots. if proton was sold to others I bet it was in better shape. I bet at the end they declare Suzuki as their partners and try to foll Gov. BTW I heard Tun M is being brief on weekly basis by DRB double crossing bosses who fooled the gov in getting the loan. Gov needs to act.
You heard from who? Pls share?
Proton, start doing rebadge and survive first instead of being all self delusional by pouring billions on solely a failed R&D department yet no good cars are produced. Look at Perodua and their mileage, something Proton should learn from.
Failed? I don’t think it is complete fail. I mean there is improvement in their recent car, like iriz, saga and persona… If you cannot accept that car as improvement then you definitely have never drive proton before. For me as a proton driver, I definitely notice their improvement. And if you’re always be blinded by hatred and jealousy, you will definitely not going to see their effort.. plus they made cheap car.. not in really cheap context but definitely the cheapest car in Malaysia..
Yes failed, look at where Preve and Suprima is now? Perdana which is supposed to be an inhouse design was then led to a desperate rebadge from a decade old model. They exhausted all the money on just one platform and there were no funds left for other segments, you dont call that a failure then i dont know how you define fail. And fyi i drove from iswara up until the last generation persona and now Inspira, so i know what am i talking about. Their improvement is not worth the money they invested, nuf said.
Perdana is supposed to use accord platform but with in-house design and yes they did just that. Did you read paultan or mister potato website before commenting?
You said they spen it all on perdana? Then where the hell iriz, new saga and new persona come from? Your own pocket money? Clearly we are not speaking in the same field. I talk about their tech and spec.. I hv never mention preve and suprima. I only mention iriz, new saga and persona.. but if you ask my opinion, preve n suprima do have their own improvement. You want to talk about improvement, lets talk about their engine.. yeah I know their first engine campro suck… Not really bad but suck.. but they tried to tweak the engine to compensate their weakness.. proton has made several engine if you blind to see it you can goggle.. even though they are not great, but hey there is still an effort and a little bit improvement. Failed? Nah what I see is an effort and they keep trying to improve. As long as they keep trying they are not failed.. I hope you are not a teacher cause if you are, I pity ur student becos u must have condemn them to fail..
maybe india tata
Just copy P2 JV success strategy. It is proven.
P2 is not JV, technically P2 owned by toyota because daihatsu have been fully purchased
Sarcastic? This is stating the obvious. Yes, that is exactly the term for the soft loan. That’s why we are discussing it.
Looking at the current trend right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Proton will partner a Chinese company. Everything seems to go the Chinese lately.
True.. if proton partner with the chinese company, they will gain a lot of profit if they can sell their car in china, after all china is the biggest market in asia and they have larger consumer, in condition that chinese like proton car. If they don’t……
Wow. The statement shows that proton is da boss. Kinda arrogant when what you have is nothing to offer to your ‘companion’. Such a fool to behave like you own the whole market segment.. Being protected for too long makes you a better bullies than buddies.
Stupid.. if you have never made a deal before.. just shut up.. you thing making a deal is like buying 10 kg rice at giant ke? If you really understand the context of the article, you will see that proton just want to choose the right partner for them.. is that wrong? What with the negativity?
Let me guess. It could be peugeot since they have little presence in south east asia and we have naza who could is a friend of gov
inb4 jual, kena bash. tak jual pun kena bash
Kenapa nk Bash?
3 Automakers >> Lexus, Mercedes dan Volvo.
Dong Feng, Chang’an and Chery.
i wonder which 3 makes give up on malaysia….renault, vw and mitsubishi?
suzuki please
P1 really need Suzuki as partner to re-capture market share from Perodua. Only Suzuki is making those smallish cars comparable to Daihatsu.
Sounds to me they already made a decision, and delaying the announcement bcos of some technicalities and as its always the case…. As long as politics stays out, it will be good,wen will we have a day where a new p1 model is launched without any G clown attending…
Ha ha ha. Beggar can still be a CHOOSER. M’sia Boleh.
Beggar miskin tegar tak tahu malu mintak duit zakat kerja tak mahu mati pun tak mahu ada master UiTM tak laku.
hope PSA Pugs take it….. just don’t renault!
Renault is very succesful with it’s Dacia brand (an ex-state-owned-company). Qualitywise Renault is okay too (SmartCar, Mercedes A- and B-Class use Renault engines).
PSA is okay too (supplying all diesel engines to european Ford’s and Toyota’s).
There is nothing wrong about Proton, it is just about trade. Car is similar to commodity, its is an important export item that brings wealth back to origin countries. Japanese will do their utmost best to conquer the regional market share and would not mind killing another car marque and after losing electronics to South Korean, they not going to make the same mistake. Same goes to other car manufacturing/exporting countries, they would not mind killing Proton and Perodua as long they can keep export cars to us and take our money back home while making sure their people buy only local cars to keep their wealth intact. Car and other vehicles are a huge revenue earner to producing countries and not many can develop and manufacturing it. Malaysia is “still” a new kid on the block, easily being bashed by others. A simple example is that “they” would quietly psycho us to keep bashing P1 and P2 until to the stage that we hate our car marque so much. Study international trade, then you will know how the rich getting richer while keeping the poor poorer.
confirmed not Nissan ;)