Lotus Cars and its Malaysian owner Proton have dismissed speculation that the glamorous, but long-underperforming, UK sports car brand is about to change hands.
The two carmakers’ bosses said there were no plans to sell Lotus, and acknowledged that rumours of a sale were beginning to hit morale at the carmaker, its relationships with suppliers, and sales.
Fellow Malaysian group DRB-Hicom bought control of Proton last month from state-
owned holding Khazanah Nasional in a deal due to be completed by the middle of March.
This fuelled speculation that the new owners might seek to offload Lotus, midway through management’s ambitious plan to restore the brand’s “Bond car” heyday by launching five new cars.
But Proton’s boss said that while he could not speak for its new owners, his company was committed to Lotus, and was not about to get “cold feet and suddenly stop everything”.
“As management today, our plan as Proton and Lotus is to continue the business plan based on what we did before, unless the new shareholder comes in and tells us what to do next,” Dato’ Sri Syed, Proton’s managing director, told the Financial Times. “So despite what you hear – rumours based on management disposing this or that – no decision has been made.”
Last week, Genii Capital, which owns the Lotus Formula One motor-racing team, said it might be interested in buying Lotus. “I think if there is a way that we think the company can be bought and run successfully, then of course we would be interested,” Gerard Lopez, the group’s chairman, told Reuters.
But Mr Syed said that while Lotus was in regular contact with Genii about their Formula One co-operation, the two groups had not discussed a sale. Genii in 2010 teamed up with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone in a failed bid to buy Saab from General Motors.
Dany Bahar, Lotus’s chief executive, denied a separate report that he was seeking funding
for a management buy-out of the carmaker. “Absolutely not – this is pure speculation,” he said.
Mr Syed said that the sale rumours might be coming from potential investors with designs on Lotus. “There might be some interested party who’s out there, for a long time since before this takeover,” he said. “But why they’re stirring the pot, I don’t know.”
Still, the notion that Proton’s new owners might be seeking to exit the investment is not implausible. Lotus has long been seen as an odd fit for an Asian mass-market producer based halfway across the world.
The UK manufacturer has a respected name in racing and enthusiast circles, but sold only about 2,000 cars last year, and earned more by consulting for other carmakers than it did selling its own cars.
It has had a series of chief executives and owners since it was founded in 1948, but has made a profit for Proton in just one year since the Malaysian group bought it in 1996.
At the 2010 Paris motor show, Lotus signalled its ambitions to take on Ferrari and Porsche when it unveiled prototypes of five cars it plans to launch this decade. The cars drew positive reviews, tempered with some scepticism about how many of them would ever make it on to the road.
Today, the company’s expanding site in semirural Hethel, Norfolk, has the feel of a work in progress.
Construction is proceeding on an extension of its factory to build engines, which it currently sources from Toyota, and new models like the Esprit. A new Ferrari-type brand shop touts jackets and bags bearing the company’s regalia, and the site has its own test- track and in-house driving school.
Lotus cars are priced at the lower end of the sports-car segment. However, the brand recently tested the waters for a more expensive model with the Lotus Évora GTE, which it sold in a limited edition in Asia, and is due to go on sale in Europe from May priced at more than £100,000.
The car, Mr Bahar said, showed that “with the right ingredients, this is absolutely a brand, a company that can succeed in this tough market”.
Proton’s boss reiterated his message that the Malaysian company intended to stay the course too.
It’s something that we started the journey [on], and something we’d like to stick [to],” Mr Syed said. “ We have owned the business for 13 years!...!I think we want to keep it.” |
