This is like one of those "Call now and buy six and we'll send you two free!" offers you see on late night TV when you can't sleep and re-runs of House finally stop. One of Malaysia's largest corporations, DRB-Hicom is an automobile manufacturing conglomerate who runs assembly plants and handles distribution for, amongst others, Honda, Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz in Malaysia. And soon they will own a 43% share of Proton and get Lotus essentially for free.
DRB agreed to pay 1.29 billion ringgit ($410 million) for 234.7 million shares of Proton from state-owned Khazanah Nasional Bhd. The deal will give DRB control of two additional plants with a combined volume of 350,000 vehicles per year.
The deal, the biggest in the Malaysian auto industry since 2000, should be done by Q2.
But what of Lotus? Well, they're keeping their options open on the money-losing British brand. " At this particular moment, I'm open to sell or not to sell Lotus...It has been there for years and has done some good things. We need to sit down with Lotus management and look at their plans before arriving at a definitive decision," said Managing Director Mohamad Khamil Jamil. Jamil later cited a demand for Lotus vehicles in China as a reason to keep them.
If DRB does sell, we have to assume that the Chinese carmakers will be first in line to purchase Bahar's struggling brand.
stovt001 says:
10:59 AM, 01/18/12
After changing its product strategy from the simple mantra of "simplify, and add lightness" therefore serving an underserved niche in a manner generating actual loyalty, to "just build generic luxo-GT-hybridy-landyachts with no brand recognition, unlike Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi Porsche, etc" I don't see much of a future for Lotus. I would be sad to see it go, but even more sad to see Bahar desecrate all Lotus stood for any further.
And if they go, here's hoping for Ford/Cosworth to take their place in supplying Indycar. Or maybe BMW or Audi/VW to keep one manufacturer each from Asia, US, and Europe.