[Lotus] vendita possibile?

[Touareg 2.5]

Fresh reports of the sale of the Malaysian government’s stake in car-maker Proton has cast a shadow over the expansion of British sports car specialist Lotus.

The value of stock in Proton has risen by fifty per cent in Kuala Lumpur trading this month, Bloomberg reports, on the speculation that control of the car-maker would be sold. Local Malaysian car industry heavyweight DRB-Hicom is favourite to acquire the majority holding.

But investment experts claim that, if the sale does go through, any new owner is likely to divest itself of Proton’s 64 per cent stake in Lotus Group International in order to raise capital with which to sure up Proton’s market share in its domestic Malaysian market, which is currently under threat – with Proton profits having fallen 76 per cent in the last quarter.

Bloomberg quotes two Kuala Lumpur investment advisors, Gan Eng Peng of HwangDBS Investment and Alexander Chia of RHB Capital, who both claim that the sale of Lotus would make sense for a new Proton owner. However, the sale could be fatal for Lotus if it means an end to the credit line that Lotus CEO Dany Bahar is relying on to facilitate his ambitious business plan to return Lotus to profitability by 2014. Bahar has recently been quoted that he believes, without the established support of Proton, Lotus “would not survive, end of story.”

Lotus is believed to need a further £500million of investment to bring its expansion plan to fruition. Kuala Lumpur financial bodies only estimate its value as a sports car brand at £200mil, however – and that’s assuming Bahar’s recovery plan succeeds.

It’s been reported that Chinese car-marker Shanghai Automotive and Luxembourg’s Genii Capital have both approached the Malaysian government to buy control of Lotus recently, but neither has officially confirmed its interest.

Modificato 30 Dicembre 2011 da Touareg 2.5

[Guest EC2277]

Ecco, vedrei bene la Lotus nell'orbita della Toyota, con una bella rete di concessionari Lotus/Lexus; sarebbe un po' come avere dei concessionari Porsche/Mercedes.

Modificato 30 Dicembre 2011 da EC2277

[ruggero]

i piani di rilancio ,la presentazione di svariati nuovi modelli probabilmente servono a rendere piu appetibile la lotus per la vendita

[Cosimo]

i piani di rilancio ,la presentazione di svariati nuovi modelli probabilmente servono a rendere piu appetibile la lotus per la vendita

[Touareg 2.5]

The sale of Proton by the Malaysian government "changes nothing" for Lotus, which is owned by the struggling carmaker.

An official statement issued by Lotus this morning said: "As far as we are aware, this situation changes nothing for Lotus, Proton's support in our development remains very strong and our focus, as always, is on the delivery of the business plan."

Malaysia’s state-owned investment firm yesterday sold its stake in Proton in a deal worth $410m.

Khazanah Nasional sold its 42.7 per cent stake in Proton Holdings to car distributor and importer DRB-Hicom and expects to complete the deal by the second quarter of the year.

DRB-Hicom builds and distributes Mercedes and Volkswagen models, and has eight assembly plants, four of which are for cars. The deal gives DRB control of two plants in Malaysia with a combined capacity of 350,000 units per year.

[nicogiraldi]

autocar

Ieri Proton ha venduto le sue azioni Lotus alla compagnia DRB-Hicom.

A quanto pare, però, non cambieranno i programmi prefissati.. vedremo..

[nicogiraldi]

Lotus halts development of new models Dany Bahar exclusive | evo

Bad news from Geneva...

In pratica sono sotto diligence di Drb, e poi si deciderà cosa farne.

Poi viene spiegato i motivi dei ritardi della presentazione di Exige V6 , ancora non nei concessionari (e 400 auto vendute che mi paiono tantissime considerando che non sono federal .....)

Lotus boss Dany Bahar has admitted to evo that much of the company’s development of new models has been suspended following the Malaysian government’s decision to sell its majority stake in Proton.

It’s only three months since evo spent a day with the Lotus CEO at Hethel, where rumours of Proton’s desire to get rid of the British sportscar brand seemed to be effectively disproved by the fact that Bahar had just signed a new four-year contract.

But only a few weeks later, Lotus’s future was thrown into turmoil when the Malaysian 
Government sold its 42.7 per cent stake in Proton to a large Malaysian industrial
 conglomerate (DRB-Hicom), which then bought a further seven per cent of Proton’s shares on
 the open market.

During our exclusive interview in Geneva, Bahar told evo that he was ‘completely taken aback’ when he heard the news, especially when it became clear that, under Malaysian takeover regulations, the whole Proton Group would enter a three month ‘lockdown’ where only normal trading activities could be continued, and anything outside normal business would have to be suspended.

The result at Lotus is that while car production has continued (at a reduced level), much of the company’s R&D work on new models has had to be delayed. This has led to a pushed back launch date for the new Exige S (for which there are already 400 orders in the bag) and the Evora GTE – plus a possible six month delay in the launch of the Esprit, now not expected until early 2014.

And Lotus’s future plans also depend on DRB-Hicom wanting to retain Lotus at the end of this ‘due diligence’ window. To try and ensure it does, Bahar is currently flying to Kuala Lumpur every Monday to talk company representatives through Lotus’ plans and the five-year programme it had agreed with Proton two years ago.

‘This difficult period for Lotus finishes at the end of March and that’s 
when we will know then whether DRB-Hicom will want to continue with our 
business plan,’ Bahar admits, ‘I really hope they will but I cannot call it at the moment, it’s still 50:50.’

Whatever happens, Lotus continues to push on with all of its motorsport activities, the opening of its Regent Street Lotus Store in June and will be the featured marque at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year. With so much work already put into the reinvention of Lotus, many of the brand’s fans will be hoping the company gets the green light from DRB-Hocom soon.

Modificato 8 Marzo 2012 da Regazzoni

[nicogiraldi]

Lotus revival 'under serious threat' - Autocar.co.uk

Sempre peggio.

Rumors su 200mil di sterline di debiti

Nuovi proprietari proton poco interessati all'asset inglese.

Ma finalmente bahar sembra on leave come dice autocar.

[Trucido]

I debiti si, ma quano hanno di attivo? Poi, per un´ azienda del genere non mi sembra tantissimo. Piú che altro bilanciato.

T!

[ricky1750]

Ma finalmente bahar sembra on leave come dice autocar.

Ocio che "on leave" vuol dire "in ferie", se non ricordo male