Business

Thursday October 22, 2009

UMW to decide on new Perodua MD ‘very soon’

By YEOW POOI LING


PETALING JAYA: UMW Corp Bhd will be deciding “very soon” on the candidate that will succeed Datuk Syed Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar as managing director (MD) of Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua), according to an industry source.

“It might be in the next couple of days,” he told StarBiz, adding that the urgency was due to Syed Hafiz’s contract, which ends in December.

UMW owns 38% of Perodua. Syed Hafiz is reportedly not seeking a contract renewal as he wants to focus on his personal life and pursue charity work.

His successor is expected to be picked from within the UMW group, which also owns UMW Toyota Motor, the sole importer and distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the country.

Syed Hafiz was appointed Perodua MD on Dec 1, 2004 after spending 10 years in various capacities within the UMW group.

Prior to that, he was involved in the oil and gas sector at ExxonMobil for 13 years. Syed Hafiz holds a Bachelor of Economics (Business Administration) degree from Universiti Malaya.

During the five years helming Perodua, he led the company to achieve an all-time high in sales. Since 2006, Perodua has surpassed Proton Holdings Bhd in terms of vehicle sales.

Perodua’s Myvi, launched in 2005, is its best selling model, accounting for more than 50% of sales. The carmaker is expected to sell about 162,000 units this year, marginally lower than last year’s 167,000 cars despite the economic downturn.

Next year, it expects sales to recover to about 176,000 units as the carmaker is anticipated to launch its version of a multi-purpose vehicle next month.

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