The planned initial public offering (IPO) of Sime Darby’s automotive business has been indefinitely postponed, Reuters reports.
Sime Darby, the world’s largest listed palm oil firm, had in February deferred the IPO of Sime Darby Motors to the second half of this year, but three people with direct knowledge of the matter said the deal had been shelved for now. A spokesman said the IPO had been deferred “until the market is conducive for the exercise”, declining to elaborate.
Back in August 2014, the conglomerate recruited CIMB Investment Bank, Maybank Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley to manage the IPO. Bankers had said the Sime Darby Motors IPO could raise up to $500 million (RM1.79 billion).
Malaysians are familiar with Sime Darby as the franchise holder for Hyundai, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche and McLaren; as well as the company behind BMW dealer Auto Bavaria. The company’s auto footprint actually extends to China (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, distributing a range of premium and mass market brands.
According to Thomson Reuters data, Motors accounted for nearly 40% of Sime Darby’s group revenue last year. In the quarter ended December 2014, the division’s profit before interest and tax fell 10% to RM138.2 million, with local operations hit by tough competition in the mass market segment. Lower luxury car sales in China was also a factor.
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well….yeah….
since everyone now is buying honda…
The cronies buy from Sime Darby motors, now they play with the IPO as well.
Ordinary people like you and me? Better stick with Perodua/Toyota/Honda. You won’t go wrong with sushi cars.
Sime Darby always waste money. As a GLC, they are wasting Government money. Their staff alone VP1 and above all drive BMWs 3 series and 5 series. Waste of money. They all should be given Proton Saga to be used.
Their Tun Musa is a great hero, was given a BMW 750il bought for RM1 million. He used the car 2 weeks and said he did not like the loud engine noise. Sime Darby bought another RM1 million BMW 750il from Germany for him the next month.
Sime Darby being a GLC should cut cost. All their SVP all use BMW 730ild or BMW 730il. In total, all their staff use about 1000 BMWs. This alone cost the company a bomb.
Datuk Lawrence from Motors also use a big 7 series brand new. He should be given a Ford Fiesta fleet car to use. Waste people’s money but yet, service given by Hyundai and Ford is so low and disgraceful.
Datuk Lawrence, before you do IPO or sit in your fancy 7 series, pls make sure service for Ford and Hyundai is good. Is it so bad. So many complaints about Ford Service and Hyundai Service. Customers got to go like 5 times to sort a problem eventhough when in the 1st time they went they already described the problem well. The Technical team in Hyundai and Ford are so stupid, they cannot sort even the most basic problems perplexing customers.
How to do IPO when Ford takes 3 months to replace any part in your Ford car?
You call this excellence in service?
Ford autoKONEKsion holds your car for 3 months just to replace a small part. My car, bumper kena bang, Ford AutoKONEKsion took 3 months to order the part. They held my car for 3 months.
I asked them where the part comes from, they said Singapore. What? Singapore? I thought 3 months, it was coming from EU or Africa. But instead, 3 months, it comes from Singapore.
Don’t know why the bodohs in Ford and Sime Motors cannot stock up parts in a warehouse beside the service centre (Ford PJ). So many empty warehouse there for rent and sale, can easily stock up parts there.
With this toilet jamban service, how to do IPO?
How to do IPO when Ford takes 3 months to replace any part in your Ford car?
You call this excellence in service?
Ford autoKONEKsion holds your car for 3 months just to replace a small part. My car, bumper kena bang, Ford AutoKONEKsion took 3 months to order the part. They held my car for 3 months.
I asked them where the part comes from, they said Singapore. What? Singapore? I thought 3 months, it was coming from EU or Africa. But instead, 3 months, it comes from Singapore.
Don’t know why the bodohs in Ford and Sime Motors cannot stock up parts in a warehouse beside the service centre (Ford PJ). So many empty warehouse there for rent and sale, can easily stock up parts there.
With this toilet jamban service, how to even do IPO?
“Malaysians are familiar with Sime Darby as the franchise holder for Hyundai, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche and McLaren; as well as the company behind BMW dealer Auto Bavaria.”
They hold the BMW franchise, you’d think they’d be able to get BMWs for the company fleet at cost.
Just came across this posting while trawling, and felt compelled to respond in defense of Datuk Lawrence.
I worked directly with him 10 years ago in Hong Kong when he was head of Greater China, and the man is all class and one of the most approachable and down to earth people you will ever meet (NB I am no longer with Sime). I am very sure that he would have no qualms driving a Ford Fiesta, but your comment misses the point – he is the BU head of one of the largest GLCs in Malaysia, so do you really expect him to use a Ford Fiesta as a company car?
You actually sound like a disgruntled customer who wishes he owned a BMW. The root of the problem stems from the fact that Malaysia is a developing country, so perhaps you should adjust your customer service expectations or move to a first world country.
SIME DARBYis not the same anymore,since I left 20 donkey years ago.
They have SKYHIGH,SUPER DUPER PREMIUM PRICING,to inflict more misery on hire purchase car buyers.
Car buyers should exercise a MORATORIUM on buying their cars.Let their sales drop drastically,so that they have to cough up more discounts as RAYA approaches.
Aren’t there HONDA,Toyota,Nissan cars which are more competitive, and have better RV ?
Cronies companies with fallen UMNO,former JB MB
(Abdl Ghani)as chairman Pls Close Down & Stop squeezing rakyat’s blood..
i see only one reason for this – motor division not making healthy profit and thus lets spread the losses to the public as well.
be it Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche, Aston Martin, Hyundai and McLaren…. the operation costs is just to high to compare with the number of units sold.
hence, the reason for higher margin per unit. if i remember clearly Ford was the one who pushed D segment price well into the 180k region with the 2.3 version some 6 years ago. then followed by 2.0 ecoboost with a price tag of almost 200k.
VW followed suit with passat sedan – thinking that the added features will lure prospects into buying.
Sime Darby is not even a palm oil firm… let alone the largest.. the last I checked… bursa put it under trading and services sector and not plantation.
Sime Darby should leave the car business and go back to plantations. How can they sell cars and refuse to stock up on spare parts? Unfortunate Ford owners have to wait up to 3 months for parts and if their cars are immobilized in the workshop what does Sime Darby care? The suffering of the owners is none of their business. They already sold the car so after sales service can take a back seat. I was thinking of buying a Sonata but after learning how SDAC abuse Ford owners I changed my mind.
The funny thing is that there are 3 big players. Sime, Naza and DRB all have the brands you actually want to buy. And yet all 3 have disappointing after sales.
By the way, Sime does have a stake in the BMW Malaysia ops. It’s a JV with BMW AG and Sime
All I can think of is how much money those investment bankers are making in the process even if the IPO is cancelled.
Or in other words how much money Sime Darby has paid to the investment bankers to come up with a plan that they’re shelving.
amazed they do not sell this, they need the money to pull Industrial out of their ERP disaster. $220million AUD spent already and it is a disaster.