Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said that Proton should merge with another automotive maker to remain competitive especially in the overseas market.
Mergers are everywhere. The Daimler-Chrysler, General Motors and Ford Motor Company that you see today are actually the result of a series of mergers and buyouts. Ford owns Volvo, and the new Volvo S40/V50 shares the same platform as the Mazda3 and Ford Focus. Chevrolet managed to enter the Malaysian market again with car from it’s General Motors sister company Daewoo. Volkswagen bought out Skoda.
Proton bought Lotus, but looks like whatever’s come out of that is only the “tuned by Lotus” badges at the back of the Satria GTi and the Norwich football club sponsorship, which is where the Lotus headquarters is based.
There are benefits of Proton being involved in a merger. Look what Renault did to Nissan? Renault top man Carlos Ghosn totally took ailing Nissan the other way around to where it is today. A merger with a foreign automobile company could give Proton alot of help in terms of design and quality control issues. It could give Proton access to a wealth of experience. Look at Proton’s latest car the Proton Savvy. Even the wiper blade control is too far to reach when the driver’s hand is from the steering wheel. Isn’t this something kind of basic?
But I think national pride will get into the way of any possibility of a merger with Proton. Or is Husni talking about a merger between Proton and Perodua? Is Perodua giving too much heat to Proton? I think we can safely assume Perodua to be sort of like a Toyota company now. It has enough Toyota blood running in it.
Who to merge with? And first of all… is anyone interested?
Source – DOW JONES: Malaysia Deputy Min: Proton Should Merge To Compete-Report
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Hmmm.. If Proton want to merge, they can solve the problem of getting more technologies from outside. I believe that Proton is lucky to have Lotus in its hand, but it fails to ultilised the Lotus technologies. I believe that Japanese company like Mitsubishi wanted this piece of tech too. Proton should relook into their resources. Ultilised the Lotus technologies.
hmm… i think, even if we think positively, there ain't gonna be any hollistic changes to this ailling company, why? so damn obvious, it's backed by a political agenda, money that is… like i mention before there are hidden hand behind this big company that have their own subsidiary company with a yearly profit enough for a greedy blood sucking family to spend their wealth for, maybe another 7 generation. Merging or what they call it i think the best word suit for Proton purging, that is to purge all these culprit that always make Proton very very baaad reputation!!! Purge these "M" family from Proton & let us look what will happen to Proton!!! i bet something good will happen or maybe we just ask anybody who are master or sifu at Feng Shui and ask what lies in the future of Proton, is there any Jedi Force or vice versa Sith force…
untill then just watch the colorful scenario of our beloved Proton, well what heck, i'm a M'sian of coz i love my country 1st car company!!!
For all off you that are working at Proton, just keep up your good work, at least for your own sallary if it not for your country… may the force be with you… hehehe
hope proton don't make other's name down if merged =P
MErge with Perodua ? NAH!!! LOL!!!
my suggest is close the proton company and use another new brand name. then we might confidence abit.
I do seriously think Proton should merge with a stronger automotive player.
Even national pride will wear off if Proton keep on "winning" awards such as this
Dear KaZ, paste "this" here already.
The Gen.2 was designed and engineered mostly by Lotus, but that doesn't guarantee success. Build quality is the first issue Lotus cannot help. The Malaysian way of quality control is the biggest problem, not only at Proton's assembly plant but also the parts suppliers. Whenever the Gen.2 rides on bumps, its loosely fitted parts squeak while a lot of suspension noise and harshness enter the cabin. The nasty plastics, filmsy cupholders, low grade door trim and flawed driving position worsen quality feel further. The Campro engine is weak on torque and noisy at high rev. The cheap tires lack grip. The rear seats are short of headroom… Gen.2 is easily the worst car of the year.
Dear Proton,
leave Perodua to grow by itself, do not distrub.
Perodua already have Daihatsu and Toyota working closely with them, we do not want Perodua "friends" to run away when U try to merge.
Proton, find your other "friends".
the best way forward for the country (us taxpayers laa) AND proton is to sell off a controlling equity stake to volkswagen, say 75%, with the other 25% split between the other shareholders (khazanah, temasek and other equity funds both local and international). off course, for this purpose proton needs to be de-listed from the klse. if u study the history of vw, the german carmaker has a history of gaining control of ailing brands (skoda, seat, bugatti) and turning them around. by acquiring proton, vw will also get lotus' expertise in high performance cars and engineering and mv agusta (vw has no motorcycle arm). the tg malim plant is already the best carmaking plant in asia (ex-japan), which will provide a platform to boost vw's presence in s.e. asia and australia, which vw lacks. vw can use the proton marque to produce super-cheap but quality cars to compete with the koreans and chinese in 3rd world markets without hurting the vw brand.
Yeah! I agree.. Merge with VW.. Maybe someday my Waja will be as good as the VW Bora (if you notice this car looks almost the same) :-)
merge with perodua ….wat perodua can make profit to proton even their car also make by daihatsu …..bad dreammmm
dont touch perodua pls…
proton = make japanese car expensive,
perodua = try to bring some japanese car install in local with local parts in affordable price
Honestly i feel that Proton should close down, coz i am bloody sick of paying premium for Japanese cars. I cannot believe that a car manufacturer that has atleast more than 50% of the local share market. has no money………… where has all the money gone to?
I rather that Proton & Perodua will be bought over by some major company, so we no longer have to protect the "national car" everyones gets the fair chance to buy the car of their dream.
Perodua can survive the acquisition crisis. They now go for brand and its past automobiles like Kenari,Kelisa and Myvi already produced high quality standards. Since the launch of Kenari, Perodua have Kembara, Kelisa, Kenari and new version of Kancil. I have never seen any of these model broken in the street. Perodua are doing exceptionally well. Proton still produced quality cars. Its Waja considered onne of the best quality in Proton family. There also Satria Gti and Perdana V6. Proton can produce these cars with quality, why their new cars like Gen.2 fail to delivered the quality? I really don't understand is why Proton still poor in QC standards? Why is every new car have problems? Is it because these new models must roll out in time? Must they fulfill the timeline even the cost of poor quality standards? Proton might believe that they are the most affordable car in the market. That's why it doesn't care about the quality standards.
no doubt, the number of global car companies have shrinken. Proton basically is the last new car company since 2 decades ago and no more new entrant. Now, the car companies tht remain "single", only Toyota and Honda.
Strategic alliances become a very important corporat strategy for almost all industries particularly in automotive industry,and especially as one of the way to acquire latest technology. Proton bought up Lotus 10 yrs ago, for me, due to the so-called advanced technology from Lotus is one thing, but most important thing is Lotus's brand name. Although Lotus is now under Proton, but Proton did pay off piles of Lotus's bad debts. So, Proton should carefully choose the foreign car makers as partner in future.
However, it is unlikely for proton to attract foreign partner and it has lost many chances to merge with other foreign companies. Most of them have already established their partnership with Thai local companies and they have planned to use Thailand as their regional production base. Thus, the future of the Malaysian automotive industry, personally i'm not tht optimistic. Especially the increased of CKD parts excise made local assembled foreign cars more expensive than CBUs.
Of course, while we are talking about the car producers, we should not forget as well the technological capabilities of our local suppliers which are like shit except APM and Ingress which have joint venture with foreign first-tier autoparts suppliers. The Malaysian automotive industry, after 20 years of efforts, still can not produce a single of their own indigenous technology and still heavily dependent on foreign technologies.
Dear friends, alhtough we are proud on perodua's success that producing quality cars, at the same time we should also bear in mind tht Perodua is now basically a Japanese company where Daihatsu owned 52% of shares. The japanese company not only gains their profit from the selling of vehicle, but also from the purchase of expensive made-in-Japan automotive manufacturing machineries. Perodua can only buy japanese machines which are extremely expensive (although they have the alternative to purchase korean machines which are same quality with cheaper price)and Daihatsu who as the mediator of machine selling gains quite huge amount of commision from the machine suppiers. This is also, for me, large propotion of Perodua's profits and our Malaysian money go.
Jonah Diary, I like you. heheheh
Jonah, you are rite. They (PERODUA) are actually part of TMC masterplan in ASEAN to penetrate AFTA, and if you dont mind, the price positioning of foreign cars will never change whether Proton tapau or not and I can assure you the average joe can only (or hardly) afford vios or city and some cheap korean only. Mind to say this but the japs still thinks that we are not in the right positon to drive their cars.
Agreed, and the Japs are educating us that malaysians, like indians and thais and indons, are only fit to drive their Asean cars (Vios, Kijang etc), which in a way are vehicles built from old tech platform.
As usual, we have Malaysians who think these are super good cars.
I agree that Proton should make full use of Lotus and that quality is the prime issue to be addressed by Proton's management. As for mergers, I cant imagine it happening anytime soon. Politicians would naturally protect Proton as a testiment to their patriotism. What would be more practical is for Proton to ally itself with a partner to trade technologies. If the Japanese thinks that we are not fit to drive their cars, then look else where.
dear friends, basically japs companies esp Toyota never look at malaysia as their important market anymore. They have completely built their plants and facilities and R&D center in Thailand and export their cars to elsewhere in asia. Since the proposal of the AFTA during the early of 1990s, TMC already made their strategy to use Thailand as their regional production base. If you realise, the toyota models tht assembled in malaysia by UMW toyota have shrinken down and the cars only serve domestic market. I afraid, sooner or later, UMW toyota will become just dealer for toyota cars from thailand and no more assembles the cars.
And, i can't see at the moment there is any foreign car maker interested to join with proton. Honda….maybe. only if proton make the move first. Anyway, If you know who, pls tell me.
jonah, i agree 100% with you. Why the toyotas, Nissans, Hyundai do not make our Bolehland as their base. Why ? We must protect our 4 billion rm baby whom has yet to grow up for 25 years.
mahindraa? hahahahaha
Most important thing is Our malaysian have to suffer our goverment white elephant pain. forever and ever we only can buy car with 50% to 200% top up from the market price. and it also effect out reality property price as well. If want to get resonable price for car and house move to other part of ASEAN.
Now I just hope our goverment will lisen to thier BOSS pain (Which is ALL MALAYSIAN)
Y VW interested in buying proton so is hyundai, no one interested u must be kidding with such great technology in proton and the robotic plant in tanjung malim who doesn't, and some more cash rich. I dun understand y r we selling in the first place with 4 billion cash i'm sure we can put R&D works if we get the right ppl and mechanism. Y sell as i know we like to sell whatever malaysians like perodua or daihatsu or toyota haha… like Dr. M says i think our head should be foreign too, a German or Japanese … u choose. Yes we suffer as usual we can't take suffer like babies. Yes we should be like Americans just be free and enjoy life? Liberate everyone especially women hahaha… well Malaysians look at ourself are we like these countries rich and powerful no sorry just 25mil population well what a big market … guess one city of China can cover that so y r we comparing our car prices with countries such as these. Y Proton is protected maybe u r born strong then ur parents should just abandon u in the streets just to make u strong to survive. ?? Well how old is Proton compare to Japanese cars / European cars or say American cars the first car maufacturer which still produce lousy cars after 100 years. Y cause malaysians hahaha,… as usual we like to talk bad of ourself and proud of others sooo Malaysians. When we can't fix the problem we don't go the extra effort just hire foreigners lah …. yes more adviser from the east and west and trade more with their countries that wil be advised and less with ours. What happen recently is really heartbreaking? Is not about bumi and non bumis. Hey we are not even egual in terms of ppl and be competitive and we are talking about competitive with foreigners in terms of cars. Yah another 100 years wont do u good. See to the root cause then we shall truly see changes.
to be honest, in my opion, I think Proton should go bankruptcy.
so Proton will not exist in M'sia anymore & less headache and less taxation for buying forgein vehicles, isn't it. its not worth for paying. i am telling a truth.
well, i have to say sometime we have to look things from other perspective.Yes, proton makes our dream of owning dream car a pain the a** as we are paying 300% more from what it shd be eg.I am driving a Sonata 2.0L A in Dubai for 42k =Proton wira 1.3M 's price in Malaysia, but a plate of nasi lemak here cost RM15, a dinner of 2 dishes and rice for 2 persons cost RM100 in typical lousy restaurant.And in Malaysia we dun have to pay 50-60% income tax to government as in Germany 4 example.While you can say all these money actually goes back to their medical & educational fees, then why there are thousands of europeans flooding a tax free booming country like Dubai?? Simply becoz thay cant save any money in their home country.BTW, i miss RM5 nasi lemak in Balakong :) ..cheers
Hey Wong. 1 plate of nasi lemak + a ice coffee cost you RM15 in oldtown cafe. The sam applies to Paparich. all these are living style in malaysia. You pay less if eating in kopitiam . see want you want la. style of economic !! 2 person eating in a restoran in KL nowadays cost you minimum rm80. So what different to Germany and other european countries. !! We pay import duty 300% for cars from non-asean countries. I am driving a Toyota Altis, made in Thailand, one the road price is about Rm102,000 for 1.6CC, but actually the landed price before so called excise duty and some nonsense tax is lower than 90K. Tell me, minus all these taxes, which would you buy, A Toyota Altis or Persona 1.6. Toyota comes with standard safety features – 2 airbag, ABS, EBD and TRC (1.8 model). You only get these in proton if you PAY MORE !! but to these japanese these are MUST safety features. So in Malaysia, if your budget is low, you will get a less safer car no ABS, no air-bag, no EBD and you deserve to die in a collosion because you cannot PAY MORE.
If you at car brochures, the imported cars the safety standard are equal, maybe there are 2 different because of ‘better make up and accesories’. Proton offers basic, medium and high. The difference is cosmetic. You buy basic, you DIE FASTER in a collosion with another car. For medium you get 50% safety but you pay more and for high ah you get the standard safety features similiar to japanese car BUT you pay even more !!
Look at proton parts. You can ask any mechanic and he/she can tell you. Poor quality plastic and rubber parts. All material only meet the minimum acceptable specs., but proton purchase at a high price !! for these materials. So cost per unit car goes up. Well those vendors purchase materials from manufacturers and the price were pressed damn low. I knew a vendor whom inform me these material are supplied at high price. Damn it, you are making lots of money but he told the other wise OVER A FEW MUG OF BEER. I need not to elaborate here.
Why Toyota built the plant in Thailand and Indonesia and Honda also the same ? Aren’t we are politically more stable, skilled labour, not so demanding workers and blah blah blah. DON’T WE ASK OURSELVES WHY ? PRIDE OF A MAN HAS DRIVEN AWAY ALL OF THEM
I drive my Altis daily 90 km to and fro to and from work. It is comfortable. Petrol consumption very good.
I going for nasi lemak now at kopitiam, cost me RM3.50 + Teh Ice (1.50) = RM6.00
Proton should merge. In this pressing economy its more to "have to" than "want to".
What doesn't make sense is, why acquire when you don't merge? And more over, why didn't they merge with the company they already have at hand?
Why didn't Proton merge with Lotus and produce their hybrid (Proton/Lotus) product?
Think Malaysian can't afford it? Well, if you'd open your eyes, it's hard to look anywhere and not see a Mercedes and BMWs on the road, so the fact is Malaysians can afford such vehicles AND there are market for it.
So what seems to be the problems?
As for acquiring, that's the whole point with Acquisition: to merge. Hence the Mergers and Acquisition term. It's supposed to be a business tactic. And according to case studies, companies that acquires but failed to merge have all suffered massive losses that mostly ended in bankruptcy.
Letting a company with superior technology to handle servicing jobs is demeaning don't you think? It's like you're hiring Michael Shcumaker to drive a taxi on a meter while paying him on a hefty monthly salary basis. More money is out than in.
First of all, to buy Lotus in the first place would have already took a huge sum of money just to acquire the shares majority.
Secondly, not only the financial strain will be huge to maintain two entities, the counter parts aren't working together, they're still two separate entities running each own agenda.
They didn't share their technology or their work-force expertise.
A very bad business strategy. In the long run. And certainly missing the point for an acquisition.
If you ask me, some CEO made a very stupid mistake if that's the case.