Perodua Labour Union Opposes Takeover Bid By UMW

The Perodua Labour Union, which represents non-executive employees at Perodua, has expressed their objection to the proposed takeover bid by UMW Holdings.

In a statement released to The Edge Markets, the union said it is concerned that the takeover will be detrimental to the rights and interests of the union members, safeguarded by the existing Perodua management for the past 25 years.

The union added that its members are concerned that any changes in the management structure could affect their job security.

It also made some indirect references to Proton’s takeover by China’s Geely, saying that such a move is not viewed positively by the union.

“We really hope that the previous incident that happened to the other car manufacturer will not happen to us,” it said.

“We were surprised by Mara’s (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) move to easily agree to release their shares in MBM Resources to UMW which goes against Mara’s aspirations to assist the bumiputeras.”

To recap, UMW Holdings, whose subsidiary UMW Toyota Motor holds distributorship for Toyota (including local assembly) and Lexus vehicles in Malaysia, had on 9th March 2018 initiate a move to take control of Perodua by increasing its stake from the current 38 percent to 70.58 percent.

The conglomerate made an offer to purchase Med-Bumikar Mara Sdn Bhd and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Central Shore Sdn Bhd (CSSB)’s 50.07 percent stake in MBM Resources (MBMR), which in turn holds 22.58 percent stake in Perodua. MBMR have since rebuffed the offer, saying that the offer value is too low.

UMW Holdings had also made a separate offer to purchase the government-owned PNB Equity Resource Corporation Sdn. Bhd.’s 10 percent stake in Perodua for RM117.5 million.

Recent reports have indicated that Mara, the main shareholder of Med-Bumikar, have voted in favour of the sale to UMW Holdings. Deliberations are still proceeding and UMW Holdings have since extended the deadline of its offer to MBMR to 30-April 2018.   

Perodua’s technical partner Daihatsu have also allegedly weighed in on the matter. Datuk Abdul Rahim Abdul Halim, Chairman of MBMR, was reported by StarBiz as saying, “We have been shown a letter by the Japanese shareholder stating that they are not in favour of any one company holding a majority stake in Perodua.”