KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Assets Bhd said it will announce a potential venture with a major Asian automaker within six months to expand its automotive segment following the acquisition of Oriental Assemblers Sdn Bhd (OASB).
“Berjaya Assets will make an announcement on what we plan to do with OASB. We have signed an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with a major Asian brand to represent them in Malaysia.
“While this brand is already present here, they are not happy with the current franchise holder. We are in talks and hopefully in six months, we will make the announcement on this venture,” said Berjaya Assets executive director Koh Huey Min at an investor briefing yesterday.
She pointed out a number of international car manufacturers are not well represented in Southeast Asia; they are mainly those without a presence in Thailand’s Rayong Automotive Hub.
Citing PSA Group — the holding company of Peugeot — as an example, she said it had made an attempt to expand its foothold in Southeast Asia through its bid for a stake in Proton Holdings Bhd, as it is not feasible to enter Rayong due to it being too expensive currently.
“So, this venture we are talking about with this major Asian manufacturer is a similar case. Like Peugeot, this brand does not have a foothold in Rayong, and is looking to enter the SEA (Southeast Asian) market,” said Koh.
In June last year, Berjaya Assets proposed to acquire the entire stake of OASB, which owns a car assembly plant on a 14.74-acre (5.97ha) leasehold parcel in Johor Baru, and a manufacturing licence that is no longer issued amid excess capacity in the industry.
Koh also pointed out the value of the land itself had exceeded the purchase price of RM32.5 million, adding that the assembly licence was virtually acquired for free.
“OASB is ‘sleeping’ and is seeing very low productivity at the moment, as there is no new business yet. We are currently using them to service the companies under the Berjaya group.
“We have one or two subsidiaries that sell Chinese commercial vehicles, so OASB helps us assemble the vehicles on a completely-knocked-down basis.”
Oriental Assemblers Sdn Bhd, which is involved in vehicle assembly, manufacturing and sale of engines and transmission. The subsidiary is looking to announce a venture with a major Asian automotive brand in Malaysia in six months.
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Alibabaa
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Posted by Alibabaa > 2017-07-25 15:43 | Report Abuse
Heard there will be bonus issued with RM179 mil profit.