KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, a major shareholder of DRB-Hicom Bhd. (1619.KU), has submitted a plan to buy a block of shares in Malaysian national car maker Proton Holdings Bhd. (5304.KU), the Edge reported Saturdayquoting unnamed sources.
“Syed Mokhtar put in a bid to the government two weeks ago for a stake in Proton. He is certainly offering what the market is trading at. The number of shares he is bidding for is not known, but it certainly will not trigger a mandatory general offer,” a source was quoted by the financial weekly as saying.
There are also other parties believed to be bidding, the source said. “[Syed Mokhtar] believes that DRB-Hicom and Proton are a good fit,” the source was reported as saying.
In recent weeks, there had been intense speculation that a new shareholder will emerge in Proton, including perhaps Volkswagen being interested in a manufacturing partnership with the car maker. Volkswagen had been reported as calling the talks preliminary. State investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd. holds a 42.7% stake in Proton. The auto maker’s stock ended Friday at MYR4.44.
Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2009 00:21 ET (04:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment