Proton.... easily made a "proton" today....

Well, news of Khazanah confiming that proton stakes will be sold completely and will involve a GO for all shareholders bump up the shares pretty good.... punters who got burned in the past weeks would have recovered their money today easily... is there more room to go?
There have been rumours that the offer is not going to be too high because of the amount of money required to keep proton "alive"...think you know what I mean...
Anyway, RM5.60 is not too much neither its too low in my opinion.
Whether there is still room for punters to ride the upside... believe so...
but even if it does not go up tomorrow, think its done many a favour... or perhaps a proton's "senior" executive may want to call a another press conference to say that it may not necessarily requires a GO or say probably proton is still considering the sales... etc..
Well then perhaps the executive forget that people can now sue SC for not doing its job.
How I wish the suit filed by the minority shareholders turned out to be successful... then E&O shareholders will get their justice... :)

My view is its best to sell proton off and take it private to sell off its asset bits by bits.. RM9.48 NTA is too high to offer for any bidders today... the whole company is getting less and less inspiration with their models... despite the recent model "inspira". I wonder big time, how the fcuk did they get feel that the name inspira would fit "Proton Ceplac"would probably be more suitable... more down to earth or perhaps" Proton Walan"...

Does the government know how much it will save the people of this country in terms of disposable income if the car prices are allow to go down should they let proton compete on a fair ground? its impact is enormous to the country's economy... but then again I don't expect the current gov to understand economics afterall, its because of this protective policy that has mold proton to become what it is today. Competition makes people stronger... well I guess, their balls are tied.

Same old story...

Malaysia to decide on a partner for Proton Holdings Bhd within the next 3 months....sounds familiar? Well the Proton Holdings Bhd. reported its fourth straight quarterly loss....citing reasons such as lower car sales and declining margins..... innovative is the key word.
Proton posted a loss for its fiscal fourth quarter, ended March 31, of about a mil.
For the year, Proton's loss totaled 591.4 million ringgit, compared with a net profit of 46.7 million ringgit a year earlier. Well, the model does not work anymore?
Fourth-quarter revenue fell 29% to 1.27 billion ringgit. For the year, revenue was 4.92 billion ringgit, down 37% from 7.8 billion ringgit...any reason why?
The company, 43%-owned by state-owned investment firm Khazanah Nasional Bhd., sold 110,358 cars in the 2007 fiscal year, down 40% from a year earlier.Separately, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi wants Proton to seek talks with other auto makers about a strategic tie-up, after Volkswagen AG turned down a proposal to take an equity stake in the company."I have decided, since Volkswagen is not interested in the proposal that Proton wants in terms of equity, Proton needs to talk to other people," Mr. Badawi said Thursday.
Like I said earlier, anyone with brain would say no to such deal... it's a no deal!

Meanwhile, Proton expects conditions to remain challenging because of higher costs for components and intense competition....why didn't the management anticipated this?... short sighted? It expects sales to improve in 2007 with the continuation of promotions and the introduction of models in the third quarter.... i doubt.

Not worth investing?

Until today, Proton has failed in it's effort to search for a partner since last year... everyone was talking about it back then and i believe by now most of them have given up hope...
First of all, why is Proton's negotiations with major global automotive players seems to be a never ending process? Why Peugeot, GM, Volkswagen all failed to clinch a deal with Proton?
OK here's what the deal's like assuming you're the CEO of company X Corp looking for a deal with Proton.
1) X Corp cannot owns more than 50% of Proton's share.
- X Corp hence are unable to run the company the way it wanted it to be.
2) Proton will not restructure the company in terms of downsizing.
3) Proton will maintain it's ingenious hiring policy.
4) X Corp to put up with all Proton's financial problems.

So you say, okay. What's the benefit that I can get from Proton?
well....here you go.
1) X Corp can now capitalize on Proton's insipid car designs.
2) X Corp will potentially inherit Proton's huge debts given the rate it's cash pile is diminishing.
3) X Corp will enjoy Proton's market share of only ~30% locally.
4) X Corp risk of potentially buying an empty shell.

Hmmm... putting myself in that position, I would say "count me out!".
It's just a no-brainer isn't it...
Well... a piece of advice to Proton... be humble and learn from your peers.
First of all before you do that, consider going for a restructuring exercise... it helps.