Malaysian carmaker Proton in red again

Malaysian carmaker Proton in red again

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's troubled national carmaker Proton suffered a net loss of 154.33 million ringgit (US$41 million) for the second quarter to September from a profit of 203.38 million ringgit a year ago.

Proton attributed the loss to provisions totaling 160.7 million ringgit, mainly for its Italian motorcycle unit MV Augusta.

It also posted a pretax loss of 158.83 million ringgit from a profit of 203.38 million ringgit a year ago on the back of lower revenue of 1.8 billion ringgit from 2.22 billion ringgit previously.

Proton said that out of 160.7 million ringgit in provisions, 90 million ringgit was for MV Augusta and 40 million ringgit for inventories.

The results for the quarter were also hit by higher components costs, it said in a statement.

"The second quarter is beginning to see the bottoming of the sales trend," Proton's chairman Mohamad Azlan Hashim said at a news conference announcing the second quarter results.

Proton sold 12,000 units for the May-July period, 13,000 units in August, 14,000 units in September and 22,000 units in October, he said.

"Our push for the next several quarters is to defend Proton's domestic market (share)," he added.

Proton in August said the company went into the red with a 12.35 million ringgit net loss in the three months to June, from a profit of 166.47 million ringgit a year ago.

Proton also announced that it had Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohd Tahir as its new managing director.

The post was left vacant when the contract of Mahaleel Tengku Ariff was not renewed, effective Sept. 30.

Proton said that Syed Zainal, 43, is presently an executive director of Perodua Auto Corp Sdn Bhd.

Proton used to sell six out of 10 new cars in Malaysia but sales have been tumbling for the past few years as it feels the bite of growing foreign competition as the government whittles away protection.

From a market share of 60 percent in 2002, Proton saw a decline to 48 percent in 2003 and then 44 percent in 2004.