Dany Bahar has been suspended from his role as chief executive officer at Group Lotus following a complaint about his conduct, parent company DRB Hicom has confirmed.
The confirmation follows an afternoon of speculation over Bahar’s future. Bahar was due to be at the Monaco Grand Prix today, but missed appointments at the event. Reports suggest he was instead called to Malaysia, where he was given news of his suspension.
DRB Hicom said it made the decision following an operational review, and staff at Lotus’s Hethel, Norfolk headquarters were informed earlier today. Nobody other than Bahar has been suspended.
Although no details of the investigation have been revealed, sources have indicated that Bahar will be welcome to return to his position if the investigation finds no fault on his part. It is not clear how long the investigation will take.
“Group Lotus plc (“Lotus”) can today confirm that, following an operational review, chief executive Dany Bahar has been temporarily suspended from his role to facilitate an investigation into a complaint about his conduct made by Lotus’ penultimate parent company, DRB-Hicom Berhad,” a DRB Hicom statement said.
“The penultimate holding company would like to stress it is business as usual at Lotus,” a DRB Hicom spokesman added to the Norwich Evening News. “We fully support the company and will continue to support Lotus in its business endeavours and development.”
In Bahar’s absence, DRB Hicom has handed running of Lotus’s day-to-day affairs to Dato’ Lukman Ibrahim, Mohd Khalid Yusof and Aslam Farikulla. Current CFO Rusman Zaihan will assist them.
Bahar joined Lotus from Ferrari in September 2009, and launched an ambitious programme to launch up to six new models and make the Norfolk car manufacturer profitable. These were all revealed at the Paris motor show in 2010.
The Lotus five-year plan, as Bahar christened it, has evolved in the 20 months since. Lotus has since started development of its own engine and gearbox, and has focused development on just one new model, the Esprit, while continuing to improve the current range of Elise, Exige and Evora models.
But the future of Lotus has been in limbo since parent firm Proton was sold to Malaysian automotive investor DRB Hicom earlier this year.
A spending freeze was placed on Lotus while auditing work was carried out. That 60-day period has elapsed with no news on DRB Hicom’s long-term decision on Lotus.
However, Lotus has been able to continue development of the Esprit and restore production since the spending freeze was lifted.
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A boss or leader should give
A boss or leader should give all of his hard work in the way to get best results,if some Boss day sayings one is not doing his job wiht full present of his mind he will cut off,otherwise a well known company find losses.
Independence or security
I know on this forum we have often spoken about who would the best buyer for Lotus if/when DRB Hicom decide to sell it. However, if the group was managed properly and not by a marketing snake oil salesman, could it not survive as an independent? It would still probably need to have an alliance with a major manufacturer to supply drivetrains and other parts, but independent thinking is what traditionally made Lotus different and desireable. Under Proton's ownership it has shown no originality, and Bahar has only had delusions of grandeur and nothing of real substance.
Off the wall suggestion... Daimler buying Lotus!
Was I seeing things or was Dieter Zetsche wearing a Lotus cap on the Monaco grid? Got me thinking that Daimler buying lotus cars is not such a mad idea... VW have played the multi brand approach to major success and Daimler don't really have a sports car in the Lamborghini/Porsche mode. Lotus despite all the up's and down's are still a worldwide brand that could do wonderful things, imagine Lotus engineering and dynamic capabilities matched to a solid AMG power unit and some decent development money... I could be talking total rubbish but...