Dr M against general offer for Proton
(The Malaysian Insider) – Khazanah Nasional should not sell its entire stake in Proton as this would trigger a mandatory general offer and affect the potential buyer’s ability to turn the national carmaker around, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
“I’m not okay with it… (because) the cost will be very high for whoever buys,” the Proton advisor told reporters at the Palace of the Golden Horses today.
“And when the cost is very high, turning it around becomes very difficult because whoever buys it will have to inject more money into Proton, maybe inject another RM2 billion.”
This high initial capital expenditure may affect Proton’s revival plans in the long term unless the buyer was “very strong” financially and could manage spending well, Dr Mahathir pointed out.
“I don’t want Proton to be hurt. I don’t care if others are hurt but not Proton,” he stressed.
The former prime minister added he did not favour any particular buyer, but said he would like the company with “the biggest amount of money” to purchase Khazanah’s stake in Proton.
“At the moment, Proton cannot make progress, introduce new vehicles and all that because of shortage of funds,” he said.
