Proton in Talks with “Big-Name” Carmakers

Proton Holdings Bhd is negotiating with several possible foreign partners, including some “big names,” for a stake in the struggling Malaysian carmaker, The Nikkei reports.

The 33-year-old company has been looking for a partner since ending its tie-up with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. a decade ago. Launched as a government project, Proton has become increasingly less competitive as tariffs were lowered, flooding Malaysia with higher-quality foreign vehicles.

The Malaysian government set up a taskforce earlier this year to revive Proton. Last month the company received a government loan of some 1.5 billion ringgit ($369 million) to pay creditors and vendors. But the government also ordered the company to produce a turnaround plan to make itself viable and find an equity partner within a year.

Proton is a unit of DRB-Hicom Bhd, whose net loss tripled to 992 million ringgit ($244 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31. Proton’s market share has slid from a peak of about 70% more than two decades ago to about 15% today.