Here’s a little update on the Proton-Volkswagen tie-up talks. Thomson Financial cites a report by German newspaper Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung regarding the deal and it is revealed that Volkswagen AG may take a 20% stake in Proton, and a final decision will be made no sooner than a supervisory board meeting in February. This is roughly two months after the Malaysian government’s self-imposed deadline of the end of 2007 for a tie-up deal to be decided.
Not much details about this 20% deal is known, like 20% of the entire of Proton or a certain division/divisions for instance, but it has been learned that Volkswagen wants Malaysia to cover Proton’s losses for the next 3 to 5 years. The report also states that Volkswagen plans to increase the stake to more than 50% in several steps in the future.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Volkswagen wants Malaysia to cover Proton’s losses for the next 3 to 5 years? so we rakyat will need to pay for proton’s mistakes?
ok la tu.. at least dieorg nak colabor8 ngn proton…viva proton
For once, lets think of other ways to get this done with.
MAS did not need to team up with other airline to get back on profit, and they did it in just over a year. There is a Malaysian out there who could be the next Idris Jala (respect this man) who might turn Proton into one of the automotive giant – don’t be surprise.
The plant in TM is not running at full capacity, why not put up some advertisement ‘assemble your car at our high-tech plant at reasonable rate’, get the money to cover the losses, R&D for new model, and all other good things, we might not need VW after all. Make sense?
If the Govt sells of Proton we deserve a better deal that the P2 episode. Whats to stop VW from taking all the tax breaks/discounts they insist upon while proton will make only a little money as they will have to buy engine/gearboxes from VW at inflated prices so that VW germany earns all the money?
Remember during the good times Proton made a lot of profit and paid hundreds of million in income tax. I wonder how much tax are P2 (who are doing great) paying now?
Don’t get cheated!! Sort everything out first!!!
smart move by vw. just some insurance against proton who will almost certainly want to piggy back on vw. proton is desperate. im sure they will take the deal no matter how much it costs the country to pay for it.
the bonus is that its not proton’s or vw’s money burnt if anything goes wrong. what a way to run a company. good plan.
Selling out stake is not the only option. Don’t get difficult, most of the time a simple idea is the best solution. Just get the brains (I mean good brains)together!
Assemble VW and selling it for them in this region can earn a lot.
I think the 20% will be covering the entire mother company’s stake, Proton Holding Bhd. This proportion is something similar to Perodua and Japanese tie-up. Even keeping their hold at about 20% in Perodua, japanese has increased their stakes in P2 manufacturing divisions namely PMSB,PEMSB and PCSB at 51% in the year 2000. So perhaps the same formula would be adopt in P1-VW tie-up.
By the way, the story of how MAS could turn out from red to black is not that appalling.What Idris Jala done arguably brings no intrinsic value to ensure MAS sustainability in the long run.He just sold out most of MAS’s assets which certainly will yield big bucks instantly. But the system, delivery service, operational efficiency, financial management etc are the same problematic area that prevail until today.
Proton also could turn black fast if they sell off their assets.Put Tanjung Malim plant for foreclosure perhaps and we can see…But that’s not the solution and that’s also not the problem that causes loses in Proton.What Proton lacks of are expertise, know-how, knowledge, excellent working and corporate culture, advance production system and powerful leadership.Proton apparently has good infrastructure and hardware but not the software. So how can Proton acquires this…learn from the expert !! not from the damn bloody politicians..
ab, dont you read the news? proton’s is already heading towards a better financial position already.
hope that proton will do well .
Agree with what you said torishimeyakuin. Besides that, one more problem that cause losses in Proton is the unveiled “wrong” design of car models at the wrong time. Such as Gen2, Savvy and Satria Neo. If the Persona launched back in year 2002 and BLM few years later before Gen2, Savvy and Satria Neo. I’m sure Proton wouldn’t losses that much like today. Anyway, it is good at least for now the Persona has received better response which can help a bit in Proton’s financial plus next year’s BLM model planning to be launched January 2008. Hopefully that model will doing well too. For the quality we have to see how it goes after few years time.
Hopefully both parties (Volkswagen AG and Proton) will finally tie-up February 2008. Please no more delays.
all the best to proton…but…dont make us dissapointed again.
Torishi…can’t say that I couldn’t agree with you more, that man has cushioned the fall before it breaks beyond repair. An action that is extremely crucial to stabilise the situation, now he is taking it from there into the systems, with some good amount of resources. Sustaining the business does not entirely depend on his management, other global factors may effect the up and down of the/any business. At the moment, seems that the best approach. The same should be done to Proton, selling-off the Italian company was a good start. By shaking off all the non-performing ventures would leave them concerntrating on the core business. Perhaps shaking off the seemingly useless Lotus could do them good? Idris Jala is not an expert in airline business, so is the Russian oil tycoon who owns Chelsea, MU is a huge conglemorate which is not owned by a football expert, its their expertise in strategy & management that made them what they are. A company is nothing without a competence CEO or MD, and never count out politicians in critical decision making.
Ya-da x 10…
Next u know, they will delay till 2009… with another partner…
the episode is getting too long,like watching soap operas…say..like two guys trying to outdo each other
From march07 postpone to feb08 …german pun janji melayu
its not that simple la.. some of you guys think jual roti canai ah? theres lots at stake.. for both sides.
besides…..cant u all see thers a question mark at the end of the topic title? it indicates thaty those news are NOT confirmed reports….out of the thousand business newspapers.only this one mentioned abt the 20% n all that…does this automaticaly implies that the news is 100% genuine?? its jus speculation la……my godness how simple rumours are believed so fast!
i think they should team up with the Dynamic Duo pictured here http://bumiku.blogspot.com/2007/03/remember-lmg-auto-and-hydroxene.html
and here http://jairesources.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=2
and continue to rip off the public money in the name of patriotism. by the way, i’m sure VW would like to know the proceedings and results of the inquiry into the dark dealings of the past proton management which im sure has been already dismissed.
my godness!
As’kum / Hello
It’s been a while since my last post, when I click the PaulTan.org, I saw this previous blog; “Proton Post Loss for Q1 2007â€. I just can’t hold myself for not giving any comments. I was right about Proton, from day one.
Just reading some of the blog I already knew, most of the bloggers in here are directly or indirectly connected with Proton. I presume most of them are Proton salesman (which is still not doing enough sales) and easily-satisfied Proton owners (most likely first time car owner). So, for newcomers in one of these Proton blog, please do not be fool by so call “positive remarks†by some bloggers in here, their intention is in self-personal interest (conflict of interest) by making fake remarks on Proton’s products so the “rakyat†will think Proton is the ultimate car while there are many other better choices out there. Bear in mind, we are the consumers, and we have the every right to gather and spend our income only on quality and cheap products. Not on overpriced “Tin Milos†that have fuel pump problem and flammable car and… the list goes on.
Since 1985, the government was capable creating a perfect scenario; in which Proton is the cheapest car in Malaysia, while the facts remain; it was “Big-G’s Local Car Manufacturer Protection Programme†which protects Proton from the real-life competition out there (globalization). By excluding Proton from primary Taxes and Duties and raising imported cars Taxes and Duties, even with these all sorts of protections, Proton is still barely “merangkak†even after 20 years! The worst part is; they sell Proton car very cheap at overseas and sell it very expensive to its own poor “rakyatâ€. While other Car Manufacturers strive hard in real-life competition by making bank loans, taking risks, effective Research and Development and et-cetera, Protonians however, can still seat down and “minum kopi†at the nearest mamak stall, why is it? It’s because the government sure will bail them anytime when they’re in trouble. This kind of mentality has rendered them to be useless and unworthy for real-life car industry competition. Heck, just look at Proton’s 1st MPV; Proton Juara. At least Perodua and Daihatsu claim their cars are in Compact Section (Small car, or K-Car), but Proton choose Big Names for very Small Car (again, I’m referring to Proton Juara Refrigerator). At first the policy was meant to help Proton to stand-up by itself, but some greedy politicians also wants to be ‘kroni-kroni’. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the Policy, I’m against the misuse of the Policy.
Points to Ponder:
I’m always amazed with AirAsia’s story of success, as our second National Airliner, starting with only 2 units of second hand Airbus (or is it Boeing’s 737s?), in 5 years, AirAsia managed to be one of the leading LCC provider in Asia. I still remember a lot of Malaysians mocking AirAsia as low-standard airliner. ‘They’ better take back those harsh words, now they’re merging with another LCC from Europe making AirAsia one of the World’s Largest LCC operators! I think our local car manufacturer should learn more from AirAsia plight to success. They did it in less than 5 years… and “ehem†our local car manufacturer has been doing it for what… 20 years +++ still quality/price is ‘questionable’. Look what happen to the big “G” protected Airliner (MAS), after the big “Datuks” in the previous management did a lot of mistakes and mismanagement, now they’re shifting the wreck ‘ship’ to Idris Jala, pity that guy, good luck to that Sarawak CEO. I’m sure he’s doing his best to fix the damages done by irresponsible “entities”. Enough said.
Yours truly,
SY0H
It look like everything is for sale under Pak Lah. Even the WPI is ‘sold’ to 3 Gulf companies and Singaporean. I think 20% is reasonable. If this can stop politics’ hands in Proton and get rid of those unreasonable vendor I bet now they are ‘panas bontot’ to sit right now. :)
maybe its give cash, malaysia cover losses, but immunity at decision making areas.
SYOH, you are damn right and precise. I too, am starting to recognize who are the indirectly and directly connected to Proton on this blog. These people are not only rude, they try their best to humiliate carefully thought out comments and don’t care about pissing you off. Anyway off topic….
All the numerical values given by VW doesn’t mean a thing, but letting Proton cover it’s losses is a more serious issue…
Remind yourselves, Proton isn’t the one going to the negotiation table with VW. It is Khazanah.
And Proton is certainly not sitting idle doing nothing, and waiting for a white knight in shining armour that is VW to come and rescue her. It is busy developing new products. The Saga replacement is next, followed by an MPV, which prototyping stage has started I believe. Profit from Persona and the Saga replacement will certainly fuel development for future products.
Khazanah is the Govt, and those in the Govt is something that you chose in the election. So whatever happens to Proton, is a taste of your own medicine. Lets hope it tastes good!
Just a quick comment on the so called “expert” in economics – Syoh.
air Asia is protected, as there are no other “low cost” airlines flying domestically in Malaysia on the route that Air Asia plies. The subsidizing a number of low cost termanal (KK & LCCT).
The big datuk of Proton have make the mistakes of trying to go for young execs market and now Proton are paying for it. The big datuk himself is out of the job, same goes with MAS etc.
Its a similar story elsewhere, the CEO make mistake they have to pay for it.
HI biggie,
I’ve never heard of air asia being protected. If it is, how come they only started with two 737s? I tot protected projects/business start in a BIG way? No offence intended…
wait for official decision
Wahh…
Everyone who has something nice to say about Proton must be a Proton salesman or employee…Some people are so pshycic…
What about the bashers who try and twist everything about proton and bash-bash-bash? Are they rival salesmen?
This is the problem, sometimes some people are so negative that the mood is that everything is wrong and it becomes unfashionable to say something good about Proton.
Proton is protected? Right now it fighting with Perodua-a Daihatsu/Toyota subsidiary who are given all the SAME TAX BREAKS so by right Proton should be dead right now…
Back to the topic.
razor
no other no frill airlines are allowed to operate. And they got the lisence for RM1.
oic… now there are some people claim that Perodua don pay tax or pay lesser tax and proton paid lots of tax to the G. Any facts on this?
proton is not protected? if proton is not protected, not only proton have to fight perodua but also toyota, honda, mitsu, bmw, cherry, kia, hundai n etc. now proton have only one competitor which is perodua and people complain that proton is not protected. what the heck proton want? all for himself?
Some people gives the impression that proton is super protected. That’s simply not true as P2 (japanese owned) gets all the same benefits. If you are competing against the biggest carmaker in the world on the same level that’s protection?
Tax money
During the good years Proton made pre-tax profit of almost a billion. Work out how much income tax was paid.
How much did mega selling P2 make last year? Where’s the money?
??…already three days if I’m not mistaken, why only 31 comments, should be more…lazy to comment anymore aa?
gonggok
facts is proton is protected. period.
if proton is not protected, perodua will have it’s range of sedan car directly competing with proton’s sedan like wira, waja or the new persona. look at perodua, no sedan car at the moment. yet proton producing savvy directly competing with myvi and kelisa.
so who is more protected? in the very 1st place proton shu not produce savvy!! just keep it to sedan like persona. ini la baru boleh untung. now savvy sales is so bad and u want to blame on perodua.
about tax issue. u don have facts on that!! show us the facts that proton paid billion of taxes compare to other car maker!!
“How much did mega selling P2 make last year? Where’s the money?”
perodua is not a public listing company and they have no reason to reveal their P&L to the public. P2 make lots of money and if the consumer is happy with the product, it is a good thing. P1 makes lot of money via protection and consumer generally not happy with the product, that’s not a good thing.
for me,
i really don’t trust mat salleh one. yup vw are doing good with skoda.
but did we know what in their head ? maybe they don’t want do the business at middle east and many2 reason we didnt know
i think it’s harder for proton+khazanah to sign the agreement.
dear all proton workers form top to bottom. if you want save your pocket,work more smart+efficient+harder.
and don’t involve with
“rasuah” ( not all at proton do that) !!
thanks.
ralat..
maybe they don’t want
PROTON
do the business at middle east ….
the jerry will tipu malaysia. wait and see laa..