Singapore, Apr 14: General Motors Corp, which began selling Chevrolet cars in Malaysia last year, said it's in talks to buy an unspecified stake in the country's biggest carmaker Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional BHD. ``These discussions were preliminary, exploratory in nature and confidential,'' said Henry Wong, a Singapore-based spokesman for General Motors, the world's biggest carmaker by production, adding: ``Talks are ongoing.''
Proton, as the Kuala Lumpur-based carmaker is also called, needs a new partner to replace Mitsubishi Motors Corp and Mitsubishi Corp, which will sell their combined 15.8 per cent stake. Mitsubishi Motors last month sold 7.9 per cent of Proton to Malaysia's state-run investment agency Khazanah Nasional BHD for 57 million US dollar.
The carmaker, which produces one of every two cars on Malaysia's roads, needs to halt its sales decline, as rivals like UMW holdings BHD and their Toyota Motor Corp Vehicles gained market share.
Proton's sales fell 28 per cent last year. Its market share has slumped to 49 percent last year, from almost two-thirds in 1994.
Bureau Report