For the past couple of months, there were rumors circulating that Proton wanted to get rid of its loss-making Lotus unit selling it to either Genii Capital or SAIC. Then, on January 16, the Malaysian carmaker announced that DRB-Hicom had acquired the government's 42.7 percent stake in the company.

Analysts hailed this movement as a win-win situation for both parties. They obviously didn't factor in Lotus CEO Danny Bahar who, according to a report from The Sunday Times citing unnamed sources, is looking for a partner to join him in bidding for a buy-out of the British automaker.

There’s been a lot of speculation these past few weeks about the future of Proton. The Malaysian carmaker, which also owns Lotus, was reportedly looking to sell the loss-making British sportscar maker to SAIC or Genii Capital, something that Lotus CEO, Danny Bahar, dismissed as a rumor.

Last week, Proton released an official statement saying that it was negotiating with General Motors about selling a stake in its Tanjuing Malim factory.

Its board of directors also confirmed that the company’s chariman, Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh, was interested in buying the 42.7 percent stake held by the state-owned investment company Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

It's been rumored for a while now that Malaysia's national automaker, Proton Holdings Bhd, is looking for a partner while recently it also became known that the company is considering selling the Lotus brand.

After certain reports on GM's interest in one of the firm's Malaysian plants appeared on the local media, Proton came out with an official statement confirming that it is in preliminary talks with General Motors to sell it a stake in its Tanjuing Malim factory.

"The Board of Directors of PROTON Holdings Berhad wishes to inform that talks with GM are only at a preliminary stage and as such warrants no announcement at this point in time," the Malaysian firm said in a statement.

Four centuries ago, they used to say that “the sun never sets on the British Empire”. Today, the Brits are content with much less – and the sun has more or less set on their local automotive industry after many decades of bad management and even worse products. As a result, foreign car groups own all major carmakers that managed to survive.

Lotus Cars, which was founded by the ingenious Colin Champan in 1952, was acquired in 1996 by Malaysia's Proton. Since then, it has introduced many variations of the lightweight Elise, its first new car in 12 year, the Evora, and showed no less than five new models in concept form at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.