RE: Lotus parent company sold

RE: Lotus parent company sold

Monday 16th January 2012

Lotus parent company sold

Malaysian government offloads stake in Proton



Lotus's parent company, Proton, has been sold to industrial conglomerate DRB-Hicom, with the Malaysian government offloading its 43 per cent stake in the company for £268m.

That's a deal which values Proton at 24 times its estimated earnings for the next 12 months, against an average multiplier of 13 for Asian car manufacturers. It gives DRB two car plants with a combined capacity of 350,000, and has obvious potential benefits for a company that already assembles and distributes vehicles for Daimler and Volkswagen.

But what it means for Lotus is a rather different matter - Lotus hasn't made a profit since Proton acquired it in 1996, and DRB might simply see the British sports car manufacturer as a minus figure on the company's balance sheet. Especially since analysts have been advising Proton to offload Lotus for a little while now...

Hopefully DRB will see beyond Lotus's bald profit/loss accounts and allow Proton to keep feeding it the funds it needs for its ambitious product plans.

Author
Discussion

johnpeat

Original Poster:

5,326 posts

264 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Let's hope they sell Lotus but keep Skizz Featz for themselves eh? smile

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

245 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Well. If only 43% has changed hands then the parent company HASN'T been sold. However, the question becomes "who owns the 57% majority?".

If the buyer already owned more than 17% then the buyer can now claim to be the owner with more than 50% control.

If someone else already owned more than 50% then that person was and remains in control, not the buyer of the 43%.

If the 57% is owned by say 57 people with 1% each then for practical purposes the 43% shareholder probably has day to day control even though they can't force anything through a vote.

More information needed....... OzOs

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
how long before Lotus Cars is sold/palmed off?

Can't see the new owners being that keen to pump the ~£500M in to keep Dannyboy's dream going...

RTH

1,057 posts

211 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Scuffers said:
how long before Lotus Cars is sold/palmed off?

Can't see the new owners being that keen to pump the ~£500M in to keep Dannyboy's dream going...
Odds on I should think, 43% is quite a big stake probably a multitude of smaller investors.

Marwood79

209 posts

186 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
If I was Tata/JLR i'd be watching this very closely - could be a bargain on the way - particularly if you can keep Behr and his team whilst perhaps halving the current model range. Think of all that lovely Lotus engineering goop all over the CX-16...

V8 FOU

2,970 posts

146 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
About time for a reality check for Lotus. Smaller model range, more concentrating on core business.

EDLT

15,421 posts

205 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Marwood79 said:
If I was Tata/JLR i'd be watching this very closely - could be a bargain on the way - particularly if you can keep Behr and his team whilst perhaps halving the current model range. Think of all that lovely Lotus engineering goop all over the CX-16...
Lotus Engineering are probably doing the CX-16 already, Lotus cars is the bit that doesn't make any money.

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
do Lotus engineering actually make any money these days?

Ricardo/ProDrive/etc must have taken a huge chunk of that work...

Fire99

9,844 posts

228 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
In these tough economic times, the new owners would need large cahoonas and a whole lot of faith to keep bankrolling Lotus. I would be surprised if they take the risk.

ravon

599 posts

281 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
As ever Scuffers, you are on the money, suspect that the numerous other consultancies take quite a bit of the total pie these days. Continually amazed that this "world renowned" outfit can't do gear linkages ?

hellem

29 posts

248 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Hold on Lotus is who you know Lotus cars, then we have all heard of Lotus Engineering which by the nature of their (mostly confidential)business subject to strong variation of turnover/profit. The third part of their busines is Lotus Light Weight Structures based in Worcester. Ex Holden Aluminium Worcester Ltd ex Hydro. They manufacture not only the Lotus chassis but also Aston Martins and also McLaren front and rear chassis outrigers and many more automotive Aluminium bonded structures. So Lotus is bigger then car production (and their MD's hot air!).

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
ravon said:
As ever Scuffers, you are on the money, suspect that the numerous other consultancies take quite a bit of the total pie these days. Continually amazed that this "world renowned" outfit can't do gear linkages ?
confused What do you mean? What gear linkages have Lotus Engineering designed?

ravon

599 posts

281 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Had assumed they might have had something to do with the gear linkages on the Lotus that I've enjoyed over the years : Esprit's S3, S4 and S4S, Elan SE Turbo, and Elan S2, all of which have a pretty poor gear shift, and judging by posters on this site and others, the Evora is also very poor. Maybe Lotus production car design has nothing to do with the Consultancy ?

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
ravon said:
Had assumed they might have had something to do with the gear linkages on the Lotus that I've enjoyed over the years : Esprit's S3, S4 and S4S, Elan SE Turbo, and Elan S2, all of which have a pretty poor gear shift, and judging by posters on this site and others, the Evora is also very poor. Maybe Lotus production car design has nothing to do with the Consultancy ?
They're run as separate companies, as far as I know. I guess Lotus Cars might employ Lotus Engineering to do some stuff for them (be surprising if they didn't really) but I doubt the Engineering division had anything to do with the gear-linkages on the productions cars. smile

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

245 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
ravon said:
Had assumed they might have had something to do with the gear linkages on the Lotus that I've enjoyed over the years : Esprit's S3, S4 and S4S, Elan SE Turbo, and Elan S2, all of which have a pretty poor gear shift
I think you'll find it's inevitable to lose some "precision" of feel when the gearbox is located remotely at the back of the car as opposed to right under the gear lever. Similarly the FWD Elan albeit at the other end of the car.

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
There are plenty of transverse front engined cars with decent gear shift actions. Getting it right in a mid-engined car is rarer, but it's still possible.

peter450

1,650 posts

232 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Bad news IMO, this greatly increases the chance of the company being sold, and it will likely go to some investment fund a la Aston Martin and quietly stagnate

RoySlater

7 posts

147 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
The bahar plans cannot be sustained, so the new owners/controllers of Proton have to sell!?

I have just seen Lotus are setting up a Lotus shop in regent street to sell genuine Lotus merchandise. The sound bites continue... yet car sales (in the Uk, if that's any indication) dropped 42% last year...


V8 FOU

2,970 posts

146 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
RoySlater said:
The bahar plans cannot be sustained, so the new owners/controllers of Proton have to sell!?

I have just seen Lotus are setting up a Lotus shop in regent street to sell genuine Lotus merchandise. The sound bites continue... yet car sales (in the Uk, if that's any indication) dropped 42% last year...
That could be a good profit centre. Harley Davidson, for instance make more from P&A (parts and accessories) than bikes - it is a major source of their income. Sooo Lotus could do the same - but first they need to do a "Harley" and stop anyone apart from official dealers and retail outlets using the logo / badge. They do seem very relaxed about this.

Fetchez la vache

5,568 posts

213 months

Tuesday 17th January 2012
quotequote all
fan - st.
st - fan