Geely withdraws Proton bid
March 27, 2017 Category Automotive, Weekly
China’s Geely Automobile Holdings has withdrawn its bid to acquire a controlling stake in Malaysian automaker Proton, Geely’s President An Conghui said. It had been considered the favorite to acquire a controlling stake in Proton, Malaysia’s largest carmaker which also owns the Lotus sports car marque. Any successful bidder will get access to Proton’s Tanjung Malim assembly plant, which has an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles in two shifts. Owning a car assembly in Malaysia would also qualify its owner to ship vehicles tax-free anywhere among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Separately, Geely, the owner of the Swedish Volvo brand, reported better-than-expected earnings for 2016, as net profit surged by 126% to CNY5.1 billion. Geely’s revenue jumped 78% to CNY53.7 billion as the group sold 765,970 vehicles in 2016, up 50.2% from the previous year. Of these, 744,191 units were sold domestically, up 53.6% from 2015, according to the company’s filing to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Last month it announced a 2017 sales target of 1 million vehicles, an increase of 34% from last year. The only black mark on its earnings was that exports declined sharply by 15% year-on-year to 21,779 units, and in the first two months of 2017, it further tumbled by 60% year-on-year, the South China Morning Post reports.
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