There were reports of General Motors doing a due diligence audit last week on local Chevrolet distributor Hicomobil as a precursor to GM potentially acquiring a 51% equity stake by October. However DRB-HICOM Bhd’s management says it has not received any official proposal from General Motors Corp (GM) to acquire a 51 pct equity stake in Hicomobil Sdn Bhd. As far as I know, for a due diligence audit to be done it requires cooperation from the company being audited. For more details please refer to the Bursa Malaysia announcement linked below.

Source: Bursa Malaysia Announcement

General Motors is looking into purchasing a 51% stake in Hicomobil, a unit of local conglomerate DRB-HICOM which distributes CBU Chevrolet cars in Malaysia. GM is relooking at Malaysia as it is closing it’s office in Singapore. It’s expected that GM wants to take control of the firm by October 2006, but the deal depends on whether GM agrees to assemble Chevrolet cars at DRB-HICOM’s plant in Pekan, Pahang. Ultimately this will give us cheaper Chevrolet cars, as current models are fully imported. Locally assembled CKD cars have lower tax as compared to fully imported CBU vehicles.

There are plans for a notchback Chevrolet Aveo Sedan in September 2006 to be priced above RM80,000, putting it into competition with other sedans based on hatches like the Honda City. I’m expecting it to be in the lower RM80,000 to RM90,000 range as the Chevrolet Optra 1.6 sedan already occupies the upper half of that price bracket at RM88,888. Two new models are also in the pipeline, due end of 2006 or early 2007.

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2007 Chevrolet Aveo Sedan

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DRB-HICOM’s unit Hicomobil Sdn Bhd which distributes Chevrolet cars here in Malaysia has launched a new variant of the Chevrolet Optra. The new variant is the Chevrolet Optra Estate, a station wagon version of the Chevrolet Optra sedan and the Optra 5 hatchback. The Chevrolet Optra Estate will be offered with a 1.6 litre Daewoo E-TEC II DOHC engine (107bhp@5800rpm, 150Nm@4000rpm) mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission. No manual or 1.8 litre models yet.

The Chevrolet Optra Estate will cost RM92,888 on the road without insurance, making it the only station wagon in Malaysia under the RM100,000 range. We used to have the Nissan AD Resort in the past. For more details on the Chevrolet Optra Estate, click here.

Hicomobil will maintain it’s prices for the Chevrolet CBU models it brings into Malaysia until new stocks have to be ordered. When the new stocks come in, prices are expected to go up slightly. This is while Hicomobil sets up CKD assembly facilities for it’s Chevrolet models.

Current Chevrolet car prices without insurance:

Chevrolet Aveo 1.5 (standard) – RM74,888
Chevrolet Aveo 1.5 (premium) – RM79,333
Chevrolet Optra Sedan 1.6 – RM88,888
Chevrolet Optra Sedan 1.8 – RM96,888
Chevrolet Optra 5 1.8 – RM94,888