Reports of a potential sale of the Malaysian government’s stake in Proton – which owns 64 per cent of Lotus Group International – has cast doubt over the Norfolk firm’s expansion plans.

Malaysian car industry heavyweight DRB-Hicom is favourite to acquire the majority holding in Proton. But investment experts are already predicting that any new owner is likely to sell Proton’s majority shareholding in Lotus in order to release much-needed funds.

Bloomberg recently quoted two Kuala Lumpur investment advisors who both claimed that the sale of Lotus would make sense for a new Proton owner.

This would almost certainly mean bad news for Lotus CEO Danny Bahar, whose ambitious plans to launch a whole series of new models over the next few years could now be in jeopardy. Bahar was recently quoted as saying that without the established support of Proton, Lotus “would not survive, end of story.”