Malaysia's Proton, Owner of Lotus, Officially Confirms Talks with General Motors

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.”