It's been rumored for a while now that Malaysia's national automaker, Proton Holdings Bhd, is looking for a partner while recently it also became known that the company is considering selling the Lotus brand.
After certain reports on GM's interest in one of the firm's Malaysian plants appeared on the local media, Proton came out with an official statement confirming that it is in preliminary talks with General Motors to sell it a stake in its Tanjuing Malim factory.
"The Board of Directors of PROTON Holdings Berhad wishes to inform that talks with GM are only at a preliminary stage and as such warrants no announcement at this point in time," the Malaysian firm said in a statement.
"Should there be further developments that warrant an announcement, the Company hereby undertakes to make necessary disclosure in accordance with the relevant requirements," the company added.
In a separate statement, the Malaysian firm's board of directors also confirmed another report saying that Proton's chairman, Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh, is bidding buy a 42.7 percent stake in the automaker held by state investment company Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
The full statement follows below:
"With regards to the above statement, the Board of PROTON wishes to maintain that Dato' Sri Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh's bid for PROTON is a bid in his own personal capacity as an individual. Dato' Sri Mohd Nadmi had earlier informed the Board of his intention to make a bid for Khazanah Nasional Berhad's 42.7% stake in PROTON.
Dato' Sri Mohd Nadzmi would like to clarify that Management had merely expressed its concern about the persistent take over rumours which were hampering the strategic direction of the Company, especially those which involved potential collaborations with foreign OEMs.
As stated earlier, the decision to submit the bid was made entirely in his own personal capacity as an individual. The reference to "a Management buyout in a sense" is correct only insofar as Dato' Sri Mohd Nadzmi's intention to retain most of the current Management team in the event his bid is successful."
13 Comments:
I hope Lotus lands in good hands. They have some amazing cars in the works.
So GM wants to further infect and infest more of the world?
You sound like an anti-American, American, a wacko born again conservative Republican, or a foreign muslim fanatic. Why do you so hate a possible American success.
Just one word of warning for Proton,SAAB.
This is GM were talking abut, the company that ruined Saab, and uses badge engineering in the 21st century! They will only ruin the Lotus plans and make a mess of things !
Bob Lutz strikes again?...
Frig, have any of you people actually read the article, or did you just make yourselves think GM is buying Lotus?
"After certain reports on GM's interest in one of the firm's Malaysian plants appeared on the local media, Proton came out with an official statement confirming that it is in preliminary talks with General Motors to sell it a stake in its Tanjuing Malim factory."
GM wants to buy manufacturing capacity. They are not buying Lotus.
All of you need to learn to read.
I think GM should concentrate on fixing issues with core brands like Opel and Buick before they even consider spending a cent on yet another over-promising and under-delivering brand like Lotus. It's just going to be a hole to pour money down.
Owner(s) General Motors (1986–1993)
R.Artioli/Bugatti (1993–1996)
Proton (1996–present)
GM already owned Lotus once for 7 years, and not alot happened, but truly i feel GM wants manufacturing capacity and not Lotus . To me it seems this could save years, seeing everything is built and in place, i get so mad when these foreign company's come to the USA and need to build brand new facility's when very excellent existing facility's are closed and all around , with all the substructure already in place like roads, sewer, electric, water, train cars and roadways, trained assembly line workers, these shuttered plants already built . also helping the local tax economy and all the small mom and pop stores around the like delis, liquor and such could re open and get back to work ......
Yeh, I really like Lotus. They do make special cars. I actually plan to buy an Exige or Elise in the next year or two.
You call shutting down multiple car manufacturers a successful company? Do you know why Saab is bankrupt? Because of GM.
No, Saab went bankrupt because they were simply unsustainable as is. You may not like it but China is a big market for GM and is more than lax in how it handles copyrights and the like. Saab was on it's way out when GM bought and whereas GM certainly did it no favors when they owned it, Saab was simply on life support and would die without outside help no matter what. The reason why Saab is dead more varied than you think. As for Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, etc... Totally GM's fault.
Hummer needed to die
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