KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): RHB Research Institutes said while it had initially been sceptical on the possibility of a general offer, it now believes that Khazanah is looking to make a clean exit rather than having to deal with a residual minority stake if it were to sell a sub-33% block.
“Sale of Khazanah’s entire 42.7% will very likely trigger a general offer. Given national interest considerations, Khazanah will be obliged to conduct a thorough evaluation exercise to determine the suitor best positioned to add value to Proton.
“For sustainable long-term value to emerge, we believe a suitor will need to eventually involve a global OEM that can offer access to technologies, new platforms, engines and transmissions,” it said.
RHB Research said in its opinion, DRB-Hicom is the front runner although Naza could also put up a strong case, with both parties well positioned to involve a large global OEM, VW (DRB) and Kia or Peugeot (Naza).
“Our Trading Buy call on the stock imputes speculative premium by valuing the stock at 0.5 times P/B (30% premium to 0.39x) suggesting a potential value of RM5.00,” it said.
“Sale of Khazanah’s entire 42.7% will very likely trigger a general offer. Given national interest considerations, Khazanah will be obliged to conduct a thorough evaluation exercise to determine the suitor best positioned to add value to Proton.
“For sustainable long-term value to emerge, we believe a suitor will need to eventually involve a global OEM that can offer access to technologies, new platforms, engines and transmissions,” it said.
RHB Research said in its opinion, DRB-Hicom is the front runner although Naza could also put up a strong case, with both parties well positioned to involve a large global OEM, VW (DRB) and Kia or Peugeot (Naza).
“Our Trading Buy call on the stock imputes speculative premium by valuing the stock at 0.5 times P/B (30% premium to 0.39x) suggesting a potential value of RM5.00,” it said.
