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Lately, there was a slew of divestment by Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Investment arm of Malaysia Government). And, the most recent one was the divestment of Proton stakes to DRB-Hicom. But, the strange part was DRB-Hicom was the winning bidder for Khazanah's stake in POS Malaysia last year too. Questions have been pouring in to Finance Malaysia regarding this issue, such as, are there any linkages between the two national deals? Other than DRB-Hicom, there was none other better suitors? As such, we would like to give our opinion on this matter. (Just for your reading pleasure) You have the Questions, We have the Answers First, both POS and Proton were considered as " sunset " companies in their respective industry. Both were not managed well and fallen from their glamorous days. Just as many investors written them off from investment radar, DRB-Hicom comes into the picture. Frankly speaking, the only asset both companies have was Government's backing. While POS has the mo...

There has been a longstanding issue which has to be solved in Malaysia automobile industry – demise of Proton . The national car manufacturer had before storming the local car industry with its popular models such as Wira and Waja . While Proton was unbeatable during that time, Perodua (national 2 nd car manufacturer) had approached Proton for a merger, but was turned down. Now, the whole table turned the opposite direction, with Proton begging for a merger with Perodua. Why Proton so desperate right now? Proton was over-taken as the #1 in Malaysia Proton is running with an half-empty plant Proton must address its problem as soon as possible Why Perodua then? In fact, Proton had identified two main areas where they have to improve on – technology and scale . To address it, Proton chose the technology path because it was the national icon, and only technology expertise could transform the company for the long-run independently. First, Proton approaches Volkswagen, then General Motor...

After racing F1 for barely less than a season, our supposedly 1Malaysia F1 racing team (now known as Lotus Racing Team) are taking their own stance on the Lotus brand. The high-profile brand tussle case has been taken to British court now, in which definitely does not represent the 1Malaysia spirit at all. Although I'm not a F1 fan, I did watch F1 occasionally. Now, I had switched my channel to the court case, which I think is more interesting than on-the-track sensations. In F1, other than performance, everything is about branding and reputation and $$$ . If not, why they dumped in so much money? For the sake of getting a court case? Behind the scene... For Proton , they want to rebuild their fragile brand by using Lotus to showcase their expertise internationally. For Fernandes & co , they want to establish their own brand to oversea especially for  AirAsia which flew directly to Europe. And, maybe just participate for fun. Both side ...