The new Porsche assembly facility will be the first assembly plant of the German sports car manufacturer outside of Europe, with production scheduled to begin in 2022. — AFP photo
KUCHING (September 1): Analysts are overall positive that Sime Darby Bhd’s (Sime Darby) parthership with Porsche AG to assemble sports cars for the Malaysian market only.
The new Porsche assembly facility will be the first assembly plant of the German sports car manufacturer outside of Europe, with production scheduled to begin in 2022.
“We are overall positive on the new collaboration with Porsche (part of VW AG), in line with Sime Darby’s long term strategy of strengthening its core segments of industrial equipment and motor,” commented the team with Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd (HLIB Research).
“We believe the eventual plan is for the new assembly plant to cater for Porsche’s Asia Pacific market — which covers Asean, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, French Polynesia and New Caledonia.”
It was previously rumoured that Porsche intended the new facility to cater for the sports utility vehicle segment.
HLIB Research expect the collaboration to be undertaken through Inokom, a 56 per cent subsidiary of Sime Darby, which is the existing contract assembly arm of Sime group, with existing CKD portfolio for BMW, Mini, Hyundai and Mazda (collaboration with Mazda Malaysia).
“We expect the collaboration to only start contribution to Sime Draby only in its financial year 2023. Our back of envelop calculation has estimated a net contribution of RM1 to RM2 million per annum at starting stage, which is immaterial to the group’s existing earning base of RM1.1 to RM1.2 billion per annum.
“On a more positive note, the availability of these completely knocked down models may further improve Porsche sales volume in Malaysia.”