Proton, the maker of Lotus, is struggling a bit to keep its engines running. China's Geely and France's PSA are competing with one another to acquire Proton. The companies are in a race and are all set to submit their bids to buy Proton.
Proton is not functioning very impressively in the recent times and is looking for a strategic partner. The company is owned by DRB-Hicom which is a Kuala Lumpur-listed conglomerate. The company desperately wants to join hands with someone who will help them to improve the quality of the cars as well as expand its product offering.
Geely is the company which owns Volvo. Geely wishes to acquire either a part or all of Proton. The bid for the same will be submitted during the week. Meanwhile, PSA, the owner of Peugeot is planning to outbid Geely, reported Financial Times.
Back in the prime of its time, Proton had a huge market share in the native market. It was founded in 1983 by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Lesser expensive imports and quality cars dominated the market and ate into Proton's share.
The Malaysian Proton plant has a capacity of producing 600,000 cars in a year. Proton has not been utilizing it fully and in 2016 it produced only 150,000 vehicles owing to lesser demand. Geely's interest lies in utilizing this plant for its own production, reported Bloomberg.
Also, Lotus has an engineering division which specializes in sports car technology. Geely will benefit with the deal as it will be able to use this technology and make more lightweight vehicles.
It is still not sure whether DRB-Hicom will want to sell the whole company or retain a stake in Proton. Geely is keen to hold a controlling shareholding with the help of the deal.
While these reports are doing rounds, Proton, rejected the claims and said that it was not looking for a foreign alliance. The company did not comment on the reports.
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