The government has apparently extended a line of credit to Proton amounting to RM1.7 billion as a further stopgap measure, The Edge reports.
This comes on top of the conditional RM1.25 billion soft loan provided to the national carmaker last year, which is said to have been used up, necessitating a further injection of cash.
“The cash from the soft loan has been fully used up to pay vendors. But Proton’s sales have not improved, although it has been marketing its new cars very hard, throwing promotions left and right. It needs more help from the government,” a source familiar with the matter told the publication.
The report added that Proton will not draw down the whole sum at once, the money supposed to tide it over until parent company DRB-Hicom secures a foreign strategic partner. As last reported, Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely and French company Groupe PSA are the two companies looking to secure a tie-up with Proton.
In April, it was reported that Proton had requested between RM1.5 billion and RM1.8 billion from the government to cover massive losses in its operations. The company is expected to record major losses in the financial year 2017 in the midst of slowing sales, based on the RM1.426 billion net loss it reported in FY2016 ending March 31.
Government funding alone will not sustain Proton in the long run, and so pressure continues to mount on the company to secure a foreign partner that will inject the necessary funds to turn things around.
UPDATE: It has been reported that Geely has agreed to purchase a 49% stake in Proton, as well as a majority stake of between 50% and 75% of Lotus.
Hmm. The Edge. Can belip or not?
Better to believe you, yes?
A lot of their rumours stories seems to be of the opposite scale nowadays. Take what they says with a bottle of salt.
Such as proton is earning healthier profit? Hahahaha.
We dont belive thedge then mau belive you ka? Hahahah
The Edge is a credible financial news portal. We trust Edge more than john. Oh ya, the bottle of salt is 4 U to gargle bcos it Stinks.
Oh yes. They were wrong about 1MDB. They were wrong about Bank Negara Guvnor. Generally their predictions were hit or miss.
The only thing I gip credit is, all of it is in printed media so cannot tukar cerita or deflect to other points of interest like caveman facts.
Like I said, a prediction is hit or miss. Especially when it din come from the horses (P1) mouth.
Credible only cuz its printed. But unless comes from P1, its just rumours. And TE have got their rumours wrong b4. So yeah bottle of salt. Or shud i gip u for that rear hole hurting?
Comes from P1? Like how they announce 17K booking before the car was launch?
Just shocking. Another RM1.7 bil going down the drain. Few months ago, it was RM1.5 billion. The worst part is, that is not all. According to Mustapa, official figures say Proton has already taken RM15 bil BESIDES the RM1.5 bil and the RM1.7 bil
But those are official figures. We know, the truth would be about 3 times that amount. We can roughly estimate the figure to be over RM50 bil. This is because Tun Mahathir loved his baby Proton and when he was PM, he took anytime from Petronas with one hand and gave to Proton with the other hand. All unaccounted and unaudited and unofficial.
So malu. That money could have been used to build at least 100 full fledged free Government hospitals and 100 full fledged free Government schools which could have looked after about a few million sick people by now.
Don’t forget also, because of SOLELY Proton, we lost about RM1 TRILLION (RM1000 BILLION) in investments that went to Thailand instead of Malaysia. We also lost hundreds of thousands of jobs that went to Thailand. Japanese and Mat Salleh cars got fed up with Malaysia cause MITI told them how much to price their cars, which was always 50% more than Proton
Sure or not?
Sure cannot.
Why Proton never save? From 1985 to 2005 had super high sales. Why never saved for a rainy day?
Sounds like our Government servants. When money come just go out and jolly and be merry. Never save for a rainy day
Proton should have at least RM10 billion saved up in reserves cause 20 years super high sales.
No more money cause all the top management idiots getting highly paid and doing nothing! The main failure of Proton, all the people are useless good for nothing.
This is just the tip of an Iceberg. What happen if/when Geely & PSA DO NOT want 2 be the FSP?! The Saga continue… 2 Milk the Rakyat $$$.
That kind of $$$(Billions) should have been used 2 improve housing, hospitals & schools. Only Morons cannot see the Big Elephant in front of U.
Another moron that thinks all infra problems can be settled by money.
Dei! Gov have Prima ongoing, money is no problem for this projeks. And hospitals & schools is more than just the building ,u know?
Too bad bashers cant see the need for a holistic approach rather than just bulldoze thru.
Dammit this government still giving proton more and more money… I hope proton pays back every sen that they took. They cannot just keep taking the governments’ and by extension the people’s money. People are suffering enough as it is with increased cost of living, devaluation of the ringgit etc.
Selamatkan Malaysia. Ubah!
Ubah ke lagi teruk?
Skrg nie dh cukup teruk…
Klu lg teruk ponn 5 thn aje, mmg X salah cube. Mana tau lg bagus cam Geely tolong Volvo & Proton…dlm hidup, nk berjaya kn cuba ubah.
Sebenarnya walaupun tak kaya tapi tadak miskin smpai takde nak makan nak teduh. itu pun gov blh tampung klau B40. Tu dah kira okeylah. Klau nak tukar semata mata nak cuba baru, alangkah silap lagi teruk nak balik pangkal asal pun takbleh. Masa tu haprak negara. Rakyat nak berdiri pun tadak tempat lagi klau tadak duit. Siapa lagi nak jaga?
Jangan lah nak merubah hanya dgn janji 20% faedah tanpa berasas apa2 pun.
Company lost RM1.45 billion also last year, not even one staff got VSS. Only company in the world give jobs for lifetime
Got to save their own people, normally would VSS all their top brass for being useless if not fire them. Here, rewarded for being a useless tool.
Apa lagi P1 & gomen mahu? Hospitals now don’t even have money to give ubat or do blood test.
Schools and universities have no money at all now. Public university lecturers were terminated and contracts not renewed due to budget cuts.
Proton, please die. We are sick and tired of you
Pls sell it so that “Rakyat” no need to pay so much debts. Take that money hire professor from country (i.e. Japan, German,UK or US) to teach in our university. So that our next generation could able to build an airplane.
Oh boy. How can one fill a bottomless pit?
Two middle fingers; one for the embarrassing failure that is proton, the other for the mismanaging govt
Boom! expected. proofed 4 models launched that doesn’t help…
Why cant government tell proton to borrow money from you owner syed mokhtar? he has many billions what. He bought this company is his problem not the governments.
Again with the loans, this time straight into the ‘would be new’ chinese investors’ pockets.
Isn’t that all they do these days?
Giving jobs to chinese firms to develop?
tak boleh persoal, ‘research’ dah buat, gomen says ok.
WE DONT NEED PROTON, JUST CLOSE THEM!
Why should the government bail Proton?
Isn’t the new partner or owner have to deal with it?
AirAsia was bought for RM1 with debts over RM40 million
Why can’t the government treat Proton the same?
Special treatment?
Who are the suppliers and vendors?
We want to know?
PT please do some investigations
It is our money
We have the right to know where it went
We are one of the suppliers… We didnt get any payment yet for several months… Proton pay to international vendors like bosch first then to local… Well most of the vendors are drb hicom company…which means the money will mostly end up inside syed mokhtar’s several pockets
I am Proton vendor also. We didn’t get paid for invoices since last year. I also heard company like Sanden also didn’t get paid. Always call to finance department but no pickup
Drastic change has to be done in their product lineup. Stop wasting precious R&D money with cars like PERDANA, SUPRIMA, EXORA, PREVE bcos they are obviously not mass sellers. Follow P2 and ONLY focus on reaching the masses with good reasonable products (axia,myvi,bezza,alza – simple).
Stronger push to market smaller models in developing countries because clearly our market volume CANNOT bring about revenues needed to sustain
Agree.
That would mean retaining only the Saga and Persona. IMO, the Preve and Exora should be retained too. But this would also mean writing off a huge inventory with the resulting financial losses.
Stupid fool! Last year only received RM1.25 billion, the money has been spent just in 1 year time! Stop trying to ‘make Proton great again’ if don’t have the ability to. We could purchase a Toyota with a cheaper price if Proton did not exist.
You’re wrong my friend. They didn’t spent it on a year. They spent it immediately. Crony vendors are paid off and money all gone. Suitor is nowhere to be seen. All this flip flop. Government even cut medical and education bills but keep feeding the crony.
That’s RM3.3 billion of taxpayers’ money in total. There are about 10 million taxpayers in the country and 10 million Malaysians just paid RM330 each to keep Proton door open. What a shame to this nation and the world. All these money to keep that idiot creator and his pet project. Sickening to the core!!
Latest news! Geely will buy 49% of Proton shares. Good, time to payback the loan, using it for upcoming pilihanraya.
Money from Geely will probably be used to pay gov debt. Gali lubang tutup lubang.
lol, I guess they have no money partnership? if want moving on, sell off lotus and partner with PSA/Geely
most probably, next year – 2018 will need another 2 million loan again, cause I don’t think they able to get a business partner with all sort of term and condition, and they do not have a clear direction where is car industry heading to, just hit blindly and spend our money like no body business.
I am a Proton Non Component vendor. Where the money went ? I never got paid. Our company is small, only 4 staff. If I don’t get paid this month, I might have to lay off one staff. This is a terrible situation !
Close Shop better! What a huge waste of tax payer money!
amboi sedapnya mulut ckp sruh ttup…cbe klo mak bapak ko kje dgn proton…proton ttup so mak bapak ko mkn pasir…ko nak ke mkn pasir?
The cancer has spread and is too serious within P1.
This is terminal case and will be dead soon.
Stop wasting money and time to save P1, as it will only prolong suffering for all.
Its way too late to do anything.
RIP Proton. Dont forget to pay the money you borrowed before you die, ok?
ehh yg korg sibok2 nk sruh proton ttup apsal?…korg igt dgn ttupnya proton smua keadaan brtmbah baik ke?…abis tu ap yg akn trjadi kpd pkerja2 dlm proton tu yg hampir 12k tu?…korg yg nk bg diorg ank bini mkn ke?…ap akn jadi kt vendor2 proton?..ko nk beli brg diorg bt kete korg sniri ke?…ko x pnah pkir ke bnde2 cmni?…org spesies mcm korg ni la pndai sembang jer…bukak la ap bissness skalipon smua melingkup…otak letak kt lutut…
Hahaha bodoh… Kami MUNGKIN x pandai buat… Belum cnfm lg…. Tp Proton dah cnfm xpndai…. Bukti dah ade dpn mata… Kete dkt logistic ade 23ribu biji x terjual… Kurang kurang otak letak kat lutut pon… Ade gak otak… Ko ni dah cnfm xde otak… Hahaha bebal
ehh ko tu yg BEBAL sbnarnye…ak cter psal kebajikan pkerja bknnye pndai bt kete ke x…klo ko dh pndai sgt ko bt ler sndiri bebal…sdap mlut jer ckp sruh ttup kilang…abis pkerja2 proton nk bg ank bini diorg mkn ap?…nk hrap ko bukak kilang kete bg diorg mkn ak rse smpai kiamat blom tentu…sbb tu ak ckp otak letak kt lutut sbb ppkir diri sndiri jer…selfish nk mati…sembang mcm org xde otak…
Hahaha… Tgk dislike ko lg byk dr like pon dah tau yg aku punya point lg boleh pkai dr ko punya… Ko pk 12ribu org… Ko xpk duit rakyat 1.5bill tahun lepas… Ngn yg ni bpe billion dah??? 30juta punya ko xpk lak…
tax money go build even better lrt mrt ert
enlarge the road… fill those dumb pothole better laaaaa
dont be racist… fund build temples, school not just mosque … other race also tax payer…
everything gst.. money spent in all these bodo thing…
damnn so many proton hate-hateboys here
There we have it. A loan to this miserable company.
Wow… seems like this government very charity. But then cannot subsidies petrol, continue let the toll rise and all. Macam tak balance ni. Serve the rakyatlah.
Just close the company and discontinue the brand! Anyway Proton has a bad reputation domestically and internationally. Even with so many of the cars being rebadged still critics find them worst than the cars from which they were derived!
Most Malaysians have no choice but to buy and drive protons because of the price. If everyone had the choice they will not buy proton. And Lotus is the only good thing associated with Proton and actually Proton name is bringing down Lotus reputation too.
New major shareholder coming in and still want to give money to them?
Where r all the Proton fans???!!
Pls come out & say something !!!
What’s more, their fans r boasting on the “new mith” of TGDi engine… sigh! Proton, Pls pay back the money & stop drain our country reserve! U’re not worthy anymore!
I am one of the Vendors supplying non component items. Until today also not pay invoice from Nov 2016. !! This is so horrible, got money don’t want to pay us !
Isn’t it strange that first the government gives Proton an RM1.25 billion Ringgit loan and then yesterday (May 23) we found out that the government gave Proton an ADDITIONAL RM1.7 billion Ringgit and today we see that a China company has taken over Proton in all but name?
I wonder why give a company so much free money when they know that it’s going to be sold to China. I really hope this is not some financial trick to bring the money back through hidden channels to try and cover up the missing money from 1MDB.