PM Najib meets PM David Cameron in London today

The Sun (Malaysia) has an interesting story today:

Another step towards enhancing British-Malaysian ties

Cameron would be pleased to know that Malaysia had amply demonstrated this friendship as it had acceded to his request that loss-making British sportscar maker Lotus be allowed to continue its production in Norfolk county.

And following Cameron's meeting with Najib at Putrajaya, both leaders agreed to set a new target of doubling bilateral trade to £8 billion (RM39.11 billion by 2016 by forming a joint working group to look into this potential.

They also agreed to strengthen the partnership in education and skills training, including expanding Malaysians' access to British universities and supporting Malaysia's economic transformation with emphasis on vocational skills and research partnerships.

 Interesting story.

I hope that they discuss the educational stuff. It would be nice if Petronas could become involved. They have an educational budget and a Motorsport budget.

DRB-Hicom have a University and own Lotus. Mix that little lot together and you get an entity greater than the sum of its parts.

Here's hoping!

http://www.news.utm.my/2011/12/utm-vc-chaired-proton-technical-advisory-council-at-lotus-group-headquaters/lotus-meeting/

 

Proton Tech Advisory Counci (PTAC)l: From left Azman, Ono (Meiji), Tajul, Ricardo (Imperial College), Zaini, Syed Zainal (MD Proton/Lotus), Nick (Cambridge), Peter (Stanford), Hamdani and Zainal,

 These gents visited Lotus in December 2011. I know both Tajul and Syed Zainal.

I used to work beside Tajul... A very nice man, and have shared a stage with Syed Zainal.

Norwich, 9 December, 2011: UTM Vice Chancellor,  Zaini Ujang chaired the third PTAC meeting at Lotus Group headquarters  in Norwich, England on 8 and 9 December, 2011.
The intense sessions on technology strategy for Proton Group of Companies comprised representatives of Proton Holdings and Lotus Group.
Among those present include Dato Syed Zainal Abidin (Proton Group Managing Director), Prof. Nick Collings (Cambridge University), Prof. Ricardo Botas (Imperial College), Prof Osamu Ono (Meiji) and Peter Marco (SRI, Stanford).
Lotus Group was represented by Danny Bahar (Lotus CEO, former Ferrari Marketing head), Mark James (Lotus, Engineering head, formerly from Ferrari).
A tour to Lotus manufacturing plant was guided by Donato Coco (Design Director, formerly from Ferrari) and Michael Och (Lotus Operations head).
PTAC was established in 2009 and co-funded by Proton and UTM.

 I have spoken to UTM and University Petronas about my project.

Tajul and Syed Zainal are both aware of my proposal.

Dany Bahar and his team have been informed also.

My gut feeling regarding Group Lotus

This post is based on my gut feeling.
Regarding Group Lotus.
I have no idea if the present management will remain in place. Proton are going to put in a Senior Manager.
This is not surprising. DRB-Hicom stated they were surprised at the autonomy Hethel enjoyed.
They have not named the Proton man. When I worked in GM Ruesselsheim, GM always had an executive who reported back to Detroit.
Proton will have an executive who reports back to Shah Alam in Malaysia.

When I attended the ASLI auto conference in 2009, I was joined by a local Automotive celebrity.
This person now has a role with Caterham. I got the impression he felt that Proton would like to sell Group Lotus.
So when I saw that Dany Bahar will get 5% enterprise value of any sale,I was not surprised. At the time Proton hired Dany Bahar, they probably wanted to get Group Lotus in a healthy position, so they could walk away with heads held high.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9219816/Lotus-chief-Bahar-gets-bonus-if-sports-car-maker-is-sold.html

Mr Bahar’s contract, seen by The Daily Telegraph, says he is entitled to 5pc of the enterprise value of Group Lotus if it is sold or 5pc of the value of its shares if the car maker is floated on a stock market anywhere in the world.

The potential payment comes on top of a guaranteed annual payment of at least £1.2m, including a £600,000 salary and performance-related bonuses.

Mr Bahar joined Lotus in 2009 and he was offered the new contract extension in December last year, a month before DRB-Hicom announced its investment in Proton.

Things change:

One thing is DRB-Hicom has synergies with Group Lotus. They have a University. A private University.
The proposal to open global Motorsport University campuses could benefit both Malaysia and the UK.

Second, whilst being a private concern (DRB-Hicom), they have strong links with the Malaysian Government. If the Malaysian Prime Minister asks them to seriously investigate any and all potential synergies with a view to keeping Group Lotus Malaysian, with a strong but regulated base in England, they will comply.

David Cameron recently visited Malaysia. He asked the PM and DRB-Hicom to keep Hethel open.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9212526/David-Cameron-monitoring-Lotus-very-closely-over-fears-it-will-leave-UK.html
Mr Cameron said: "I raised this issue with the Malaysian Prime Minister and with the new Malaysian owners of Lotus's parent company. Lotus makes a key contribution to the UK automotive sector. The sector is doing well and I want to see Lotus succeed and to have a secure future. We are in contact with the company, monitoring the situation very closely and ensuring that it knows about the regional growth fund money that is available."


If DRB-Hicom unload Group Lotus now it would be messy. They (Group Lotus) would be viewed as a basket case. Invest more... WISELY... and it could be a win win for everyone.

My gut feeling is common-sense and political pressure dictates a healthy and profitable future for Group Lotus.

I hope so anyway.

David Cameron to visit Malaysia.

Tomorrow, Thursday 12 April 2012 David Cameron is due to visit Malaysia on a Trade mission. In Malaysia his focus will be on educational services.
I would be very surprised if he didn't talk about DRB-Hicom's recent purchase of Proton and Group Lotus.

Group Lotus are a commercial disaster. Rumours abound about their future. Liquidation is mentioned, as is an imminent sale.

Does David Cameron have an Ace up his sleeve? Can he persuade the Malaysians to pump more money into Lotus?

If not, I would have to say that the future of Group Lotus is bleak. Whatever happens the autonomy of the Group will be greatly reduced.

Good Luck Mr Cameron!

I certainly hope everything works out for the best. I would love DRB-Hicom to actively become involved with my proposal.

Because of all the rumours, Lotus have put out a press release. I have copy and pasted it below. I took it from:
 http://skiddmark.com/2012/04/lotus-speaks-out-over-rumours-of-its-untimely-demise/
IGNORE THE VISUAL... ADDED BY SKIDDMARK (I think)
However, it is a general release and viewable on many sites:

11/04/2012 – Statement from Group Lotus

“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story..”

“Take a little look at what we found online. Don’t you think it’s funny? We do. We had a good old giggle. After all, we love a bit of self irony, just as well really. Although it’s funny, this one’s not accurate but then again, why let the facts get in the way of a good story? The inconvenient truth is – surprise, surprise – we have never said that there are no problems at Lotus.

So whilst lots of people obviously feel the need to comment on Lotus’ current situation in the absence of proper facts or evidence, we can’t ignore these particular mistruths any longer even if we would like to, so we have decided to turn a negative into a positive and use this hilarious piece of ‘art’ to set the record straight regarding the status quo at Group Lotus and try to return a little stability to a fast changing situation.

False rumour #1: Dany Bahar is no longer CEO of Group Lotus.
Fact: Rubbish – Dany Bahar still is.

False rumour #2: Dato’ Sri Syed is no longer Managing Director of Proton.
Fact: Again rubbish. He still is.

You can thank good old Tony Fernandes for these two. Don’t take everything he tweets too seriously – perhaps he’s still frustrated about owning Caterham instead of Lotus and the fact that he fights HRT and Marussia instead of Mercedes and Ferrari in F1.

And whilst we’re on the subject of jokes – do you know the latest F1 joke? Mike Gascoyne, Caterham Group’s Chief Technical Officer, has gone missing. Why? He’s looking for the 30 to 40 points he predicted for the last F1 season. Funny.

Speaking of F1: It seems that one special so called ‘independent’ source is at the root of the lion’s share of damaging rumours and misleading stories. The delightful Joe Saward which leads us nicely to….

False rumour #3: Joe Saward is JUST an independent journalist.
Fact: He is an active Director for the Caterham Group.

And unlike some, we don’t want to get too personal, so we’ll leave it to you to judge how ‘independent’ his stories about Lotus are.

False rumour #4: Group Lotus is no longer involved in F1.
Fact: Lotus F1 Team and Group Lotus have reshaped their commercial relationship earlier this year. The new governance agreement signifies the continued commitment of Group Lotus to the team and the sport.

Group Lotus’ branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.

The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years. In order to secure the loan Genii used 100% of the F1 team’s assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.

In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton.

Again we leave it to your judgement how ‘bad’ Lotus’ current situation in F1 is. And speaking of bad situations…..

False rumour #5: Group Lotus is going into administration.
Fact: Rubbish. The takeover of our parent company Proton by DRB-HICOM couldn’t have come at a worse time, but up until that point Proton was (and still remains) fully committed to our five year business plan to create jobs and to expand the factory and business. With the takeover process the funding has been restricted and DRB-HICOM is taking time to understand what to do with the business.

DRB-HICOM is currently in the middle of due diligence of Group Lotus and there have been and continue to be positive discussions between Group Lotus senior management and senior management at DRB-HICOM both here in Hethel and in Malaysia. At no point has DRB-HICOM indicated to Group Lotus that it intends to put the company into administration. The over-active rumour mill is seriously damaging our business reputation, image and credibility but it is what it is.

The simple fact is, and we haven’t denied this – Lotus is going through a very difficult phase at the moment but we are showing true fighting spirit every day in trying to keep this vision alive. This is also a fact – no matter what people outside of Lotus may say or tweet or blog.”