General Motors Corp has joined hands with DRB-HICOM, Malaysia's largest car distributor and importer, to form a new company to distribute their new Chevrolet, the firms announced on August 30.
The world's largest carmaker will hold a 51 percent stake in the new company HICOM-Chevrolet Sdn Bhd, while DRB-HICOM will hold 49 percent. Initial outlay will be 50 million ringgit (14 million dollars), they said.
Mohamad Khamil Jamil, DRB-HICOM managing director, said they hoped to sell 4,000 units of the Chevrolet Aveo notchback this year, with other GM models entering the local market in phases.
Steve Carlisle, president of GM's Southeast Asia operations, said they had long term plans to build an assembly plant in Malaysia for the local market. "They can also expect many other types of Chevrolets," he added.
Deal also signals that DRB-HICOM may have lost hopes of acquiring a stake in Malaysia's flagship carmaker Proton, who are currently in talks with German giant Volkswagen. Last year DRB-HICOM, together with Malaysia's other top car distributor Naza, put in their bids for a stake in Proton.
But it seems Proton are more interested in acquiring a foreign partner and the technical assistance they can bring.
"Our bid is still on Proton's table but there is no use talking about that at this stage. Anyway, it was always up to the government to choose who Proton should partner," Mohamad told AFP. Malaysia's second finance minister said last week that they were keen to wrap-up ongoing talks between Proton and Volkswagen by the end of the year.
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