A row over dealership rights could lead to a permanent parting of the ways for Malaysia’s Oriental Holdings and Honda.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Oriental was sole distributor for Honda cars until last July, when Japan#;s second biggest carmaker took back those rights to form a local unit, giving it direct involvement in Malaysia#;s market.
As a result, Oriental#;s retailing arm Kah Motor Co Sdn Bhd had to share sales of Honda cars with other retailers. Oriental was left holding 15 per cent of the joint venture DRB-Oriental-Honda (DOH).
The new squabble centres on accusations that DOH has been telling car buyers that Kah Motor has ceased to be part of the Honda dealer network in Malaysia.
A Honda official said the issue was a misunderstanding, which has since been cleared up.
However, a source close to Kah told the Singapore Business Times: “Kah Motor has a dealership contract with Honda until the end of June 2003. But when it expires, there may be no more dealership. Kah Motor may not renew it.”
