Last week, it was reported that Proton is expected to announce its strategic partnership agreement with a foreign automaker next year sometime in the first quarter, with March 31 being the mentioned date.
Earlier today, at the launch of the Proton Ertiga, the automaker reiterated that it is looking to cement things by then, but added that the announcement might not be made in March. It also declined to reveal the trio of automakers shortlisted as potential partners.
“It is premature for us to mention the names because DRB-Hicom is a publicly-listed company, and the prospective partners could be publicly-listed companies,” Proton non-executive chairman Datuk Seri Syed Faisal Akbar told reporters at the press conference following the Ertiga launch.
Earlier reports had intimated that PSA Group, Renault and Suzuki were among interested parties seeking to buy into Proton.
In terms of decision making, Syed Faisal said the automaker should be able to announce a strategic partner by the first half of next year.
“We will strive as much as possible to close things by the end of first quarter, but the timing may be beyond our control because the partners also have other priorities. We would like to finish it by end of the first quarter, but certainly it will be concluded by the first half,” 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.
Questions were again asked today of what percentage the foreign stake will be in the national carmaker, but Proton declined to comment on the matter. Previously, DRB-Hicom has said that it will continue to hold a ‘strategic stake’ in Proton, even with a foreign partner in the picture.
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So many times Proton was offered to be bought or partnership. But Government declined. And countless of times been offered to merger, Government declined.
Actually in 2007, VW wanted to merge with Proton. If VW had merged with Proton, Proton will be making billions. But unfortunately, cabinet shot down the decision. VW on the other hand wanted to merge with Proton badly.
Here, we must analyse why cabinet shot down the decision. Our brilliant cabinet shot down the decision because the Germans did not agree to the 30% free shares tongkat policy ruling. The Germans were shocked. They have never heard of this tongkat policy. But our Ministers said that in Malaysia, whatever company you set up, you must give 30% shares FREE.
Mat Salleh said cannot lah like this. Then cabinet shot down the deal. Imagine if Proton was to rebadge VW cars, Proton will be worth billions today!
Hidup tongkat policy!
Imagine if Proton sold rebadged German cars, nobody will even bother buying any Japanese cars in Malaysia. Of course not the DSG units but the normal Auto Polos.
And we can always exit the partnership, say in 2015 when the dieselgate scandal happened.
Everybody will buy this rebadged Polos cause we know we will be getting a full German car. This is the same principle why Perodua is doing well. People know they are getting a full Toyota Passo when they buy a Myvi.
bodoh Proton
So, whether Proton is sold or merger, our Government will give the buyer all sorts of conditions and the other car company will run away.
Better for Proton to just close down. Last year, the big scandal of RM1.5 billion was because Proton sold 100,000 cars only and was bankrupt. That is why Mustapa was mad and gave the RM1.5 billion to save Proton.
Proton said to Mustapa that this year, with 4 new models, sales going to be more than 100,000.
But shockingly, despite 3 models already launched and year end already, Proton has only sold 57,000 cars.
That is the big shocker for this year. Half of last year.
Bear in mind also, the 57,000 cars sold, bulk of it was ordered by Government departments and Ministries as a “sedekah” to help Proton.
Which company wants to partner like this?
Kuntak katak prolly a VW problematic DSG victim
Pity
Wah boring lah bang, copy and paste punya post..tak penat kah
What a nonsense! Lucky we didn’t let vw buy proton. Look here…vw is shedding its’ workforce now u moron.
Look at Skoda latest models,they doing very well.
Really lucky ?!?! But VWM still selling the car models like expensive German car ! They treat Rakyat Malaysia NEVER read world news regarding WORLD SCANDAL… and still selling normally !!! VWM a bigger liar then Global VW ?!?!
Again,analysis from empty brain people. You dont have the facts, all were wrong. Do not nake up a story and hoping to damaging others for RM50 keyboard warrior
I imagine a roulette table spinning in proton’s boardroom marked with names of potential strategic partners with shareholders screaming ” wang besar wang besar “
Sell it off to China company!
Just pick one:
Haval great wall
Dong Feng
Foton
Qoros
BYD
Geely
etc.
Qoros got freevalve tech from Koenigsegg
Proton believes ‘rebadging OLD-technology’ is strategy, which says a lot about this 30+ years company.
Even toyota pug nissan do rebadging, your point?
51% to China company la
Kunta bin Kinte…if u think PROTON badly stupid,why u always bash for any latest news related to PROTON. Don’t bother them..or else you yourself also become an idiot.
soooooo boring,every time news come out,your name will appear and bash for nothing..
Becoz he is paid to bash
and Khairie is paid to defend
last last it’s perodua. LOL
Don’t worry. We have john, the BEST defender of our Gov/P1 policies. I will just sit back & enjoy reading the bashing & the defending by our Esteem commentators.
Happy commenting & reading by Kunta & john. This is better than Manchester Darby between Man United & Man City. Ha ha ha.
Volvo > all, so please get sold to Geely.
Tata > Volvo
Volvo is doing well because the Chinese are hardly getting involved in their business. They give money and take tech, and gave the direction to focus a bit more on design. That’s all, probably.
Geely owning Proton… what good would that do? What can Proton learn from Geely? What tech can they get? A more modern car maker would make more sense.
Can Proton learn anything from any other car manufacturers?
To “learn” means to Humble oneself. U think P1 will ever Learn/Humble themselves !?
P1 learned their lesson faster than ur toyota godkompeni
Geely already has CEVT (Lynk & Co), Volvo on top of intensive inventment on their own product lines. No reason to buy Proton.
what for partner with us, market so small, gov so much conditions…workers here….always minum kopi minum teh….ppl also scared la
Not to mention currency not stable, this year make 10% profit. Next year currency drop 20% = make loss!
When Renault shows interest, it is actually wants to be a giant auto company, having Dacia, Nissan, infiniti and Mitsubishi under its wings. But what I am hearing it would be Suzuki, though the conditions are pretty tough. First Suzuki will want a 51% holding so it will have the first say in whatever decisions to be made. Second, both Suzuki and proton will have access to entire models in each other fleet. Suzuki may rebadge iriz as SX4. Maybe Preve as something under Kizashi. Proton may rebadge vitara as its SUV. If Maruti is interested, perhaps rebadge the Saga for India. Super large market there. Thirdly, Suzuki is saying proton has excess numbers of staff for such a small company. Currently they have abt 13k. May have to lose 30-40%. Remaining staff may need to learn multitasking. Fourth. Good thing is that Suzuki is also cash rich. It is 9th biggest automaker in the world. It has a wide knowledge in 4wd, safety and emission among others. Proton now in gear 2, if Suzuki takes over it may straight go into 5th gear
Suzuki has gulung tikar in many markets. Cash rich? talking rubbish!
Suzuki? Can they even afford? Then again, Proton is already partnering with Suzuki right now. The partnerships with PSA and Renault Nissan are all a while back already. And how odd would it be if Proton sold Suzuki cars while being part of another company?
Dream on. Bound to fail again. VW dejavu. DRB is hopeless. It has been years yet there hvnt announce their strategic turnaround plan. This year models are a bunch of rebadge n touch ups. Probably no models for next year apart for some decal editions.
gibab je la Proton..
Ask Jho Low one person buy 100% of whole proton. Sailang rakyat money already