What’s happening in PSA? As if the possible purchase of Opel by PSA (Peugeot Citroën) and the completed purchase of Ambassador (Indian manufacturer owned by Hindustan acquired for 11 million euros with the promise to invest 100 million euros) were not enough to appease the appetite Of the Lion of Peugeot, the Gallic group would be negotiating with DRB-Hicom the purchase of Proton.
A few days ago, it seemed that PSA had been left out of the purchase of Proton, the Malaysian manufacturer. However, sources in the local daily The Star, say PSA remains on the list of possible. In fact, only two groups presented a dossier of partial purchase (but most control) Proton to state group DRB-Hicom. These are PSA and the Chinese Geely (yes, the owners of Volvo).
PSA wants to set foot in Southeast Asia
That PSA buy Opel, a priori, does not seem a good idea (between the two add 14 factories in Europe, increased the problem of over capacity, not to mention the redundant ranges ), however Proton play seems more interesting to PSA .
Proton owns 15% of the Malaysian market, a country where 600,000 cars are sold per year. Malaysia is the third largest market in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia and Thailand. The idea of PSA is, thanks to Proton, access the Southeast Asian market. And it is that Proton owns two factories in Malaysia, being that of Tanjung Malim the easiest to modernize. It currently manufactures about 150,000 cars a year , despite a capacity of one million units.
Geely goes to Lotus and its engineering studio
As you know, the DRB-Hicom group via Proton is also the owner of Lotus. However, PSA would not be interested in Lotus, but Geely is. In fact, to Geely, what interests to him is the study of engineering of Lotus, the sports are secondary for Geely . And is that the Chinese government urges large groups to acquire technology, because Chinese brands, despite so many joint venture with Western and Asian brands have failed.
In that sense, Geely seems the ideal candidate. Not only has the financial resources to acquire Lotus also has demonstrated that Volvo is able to maintain the essence of the brand, it simply investing to grow and expand. In fact, 2016 has been a record sales year for Volvo.