Currently reading: Chinese buyer sought for Lotus
Lotus’s new owner, DRB-Hicom, is seeking a Chinese buyer for the troubled sports car maker

Group Lotus’s new Malaysian-based owner, DRB-Hicom, is actively seeking a Chinese buyer for the troubled engineering group and sports car maker, according to the South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon.

Bacon, whose constituency covers Lotus’s Hethel headquarters, 10 miles south of Norwich, says he understands global business consultancy KPMG has been retained as a “corporate salesman” to find a new owner for Lotus. He says the bombshell revelation emerged in last night “just before” an hour-long parliamentary debate on Lotus’s future began at 9pm. The debate was attended by MPs from neighbouring constituencies and Mark Prisk, minister of state for business, innovation and skills responded on behalf of the government.

The debate’s purpose, says Bacon, was to highlight the value to the Norfolk region of Lotus’s special technical skills and innovation culture, and to signal concern at the danger to Lotus’s 1200 Hethel-based jobs a change of ownership could bring. Bacon claimed the employment contract of Lotus CEO Dany Bahar contains a financial incentive to find a buyer for the company.

Bacon further pointed out that a few hours after British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent meeting with Proton boss Dato’ Sri Syed Zainal, aimed stressing the UK government’s view of the extreme importance of retaining Lotus’s skills and jobs in Norfolk, Zainal had travelled to China to seeking a new owner for Group Lotus.

Mark Prisk, the minister, said the government recognised the need to “keep talking at all levels on this important issue” and made it clear that a grant of around £10 million to assist Lotus’s much-publicised expansion plans had been placed “on hold” since the DRB-Hicom acquisition, and would remain so until the situation clarified.

Steve Cropley

Steve Cropley Autocar
Title: Editor-in-chief

Steve Cropley is the oldest of Autocar’s editorial team, or the most experienced if you want to be polite about it. He joined over 30 years ago, and has driven many cars and interviewed many people in half a century in the business. 

Cropley, who regards himself as the magazine’s “long stop”, has seen many changes since Autocar was a print-only affair, but claims that in such a fast moving environment he has little appetite for looking back. 

He has been surprised and delighted by the generous reception afforded the My Week In Cars podcast he makes with long suffering colleague Matt Prior, and calls it the most enjoyable part of his working week.

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TegTypeR 27 April 2012

Re: Chinese buyer sought for Lotus

Peter Cavellini wrote:
What's going on here?,is everything being bought by China?,apparently there growth i slowing down?,should we be careful?

Yes we (or more specifically in this case Lotus) should be careful.

Was chatting to a customer who makes plastic containers yesterday, who used to source all of his tooling from China. After a recent costing exercise, they have now decided to start manufacturing their own tooling in the UK because it was now no longer economical to buy it in.

China's economy has predominantly been built on volume and it's ability to produce things cheaply. This highlights that the tide is turning and unless the global economy picks up iun a sufficient way (and consumption increases again) then the Chinese could be heading for a rough patch.

Peter Cavellini 27 April 2012

Re: Chinese buyer sought for Lotus

Autocar wrote:
Group Lotus’s new Malaysian-based owner, DRB-Hicom, is actively seeking a Chinese buyer for the troubled engineering group and sports car maker, according to the South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon.

Bacon, whose constituency covers Lotus’s Hethel headquarters, 10 miles south of Norwich, says he understands global business consultancy KPMG has been retained as a “corporate salesman” to find a new owner for Lotus. He says the bombshell revelation emerged in last night “just before” an hour-lon...Read the full article
What's going on here?,is everything being bought by China?,apparently there growth i slowing down?,should we be careful?

Londonist 26 April 2012

Re: Chinese buyer sought for Lotus

Flash Harry wrote:
I think Toyota would be the ideal owner for Lotus.They have a UK base and have the funds to invest in Lotus.
You must have noticed that in all the mad scramble to buy up different brands over the last 20 years or more - Mercedes/Chrysler, Fiat/Chrysler, BMW/Rover etc etc - the Japanese have been sitting on their hands and keeping their money in the bank. Honestly, Toyata is about as likely to buy Lotus as you are.