Oriental Establishes New Car Dealership
Earlier this week, Oriental Holdings Bhd announced that it had incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary to be known as ‘Kah Bintang Sdn Bhd’ which will have as its principal activity ‘selling/trading in all types of cars, spare parts, accessories and all related component parts’. The company has an authorised capital of RM10 million.
It is likely that this new subsidiary is being established for the purpose of selling Hyundai vehicles and offer after-sales services. Oriental recently signed a joint-venture agreement with Hyumal Sdn Bhd in which it is the majority shareholder in a new company, Oriental-Hyundai Sdn Bhd, that will assemble and distribute Hyundai vehicles. The assembly will be done at Oriental Assemblers in Tampoi, Johor.
No date has been mentioned for the start of Kah Bintang’s operations although it is likely that activities would start in the second quarter in preparation for sales commencing during the third quarter of 2001.
Although Oriental already has its Kah Motor subsidiary, it may not be able to use that channel which is still the Honda distributor for Malaysia. As such, other makes would not be allowed in Kah Motors showrooms. Therefore, there would be a need for another dealership group to sell Hyundais.
Oriental, in which Honda Motor of Japan has a 4% share, also has a subsidiary in Brunei, Happy Motoring Sdn Bhd, which is the distributor of Honda vehicles in that country.
