ARTICLE: NEWSBREAK: EON COULD BE DISTRIBUTING PROTON CARS AGAIN
NATIONAL carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd could undergo a restructuring exercise, which could
see it split its sales and assembly parts segments, sources familiar with the matter tell The Edge.
It is understood that plans are afoot to sell dealerships under Proton Edar Sdn Bhd, which is a
wholly-owned unit of Proton, to Edaran Otomobil Nasional Bhd (EON) and hive off en bloc the
dealerships that EON may not want to interested parties. “For instance, if EON is not keen to
handle the Sabah and Sarawak sales, then Proton may seek parties interested in taking over that
business. But EON has sort of a right of first refusal,” a source explains. He says this can easily
be manoeuvred as EON is wholly owned by DRB-Hicom Bhd, which is a conglomerate with a
50.1% stake in Proton. Proton, meanwhile, wholly owns Proton Edar. The remaining 49.9%
shareholding in Proton is held by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Ltd, which acquired the
stake from DRB-Hicom for RM460.3 million in 2017. DRB-Hicom did not reply to a question from
The Edge on the possible sale of Proton’s dealerships. It is also understood that some groups
that may be keen to take over the dealerships that EON may not be interested in, have already
been identified.
It is not clear how many Proton Edar outlets there are, but reports have it that Proton has as many
as 120 3S and 4S service centres all over the country. A check on CTOS’ website reveals that in
its financial year ended March 2019, Proton Edar suffered an after-tax loss of RM159.24 million
on the back of RM3.85 billion in revenue. In the financial year ended March 2018, the company
incurred losses to the tune RM271.52 million from RM3.3 billion in sales. To put things in
perspective, Proton Edar had RM289.92 million in accumulated losses as at end-March last year.
During the same period, it had RM1.02 billion in total assets and RM1.29 billion in total liabilities.
However, it is worth noting that the Proton X70, which resembles the Geely Boyue and is slated
to mark Proton’s revival, was previewed at the 2018 Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show and
launched on Dec 12, 2018.
