DRB-Hicom Bhd has suspended its shares ahead of the inking of a final deal with China-based Geely to acquire a stake in Proton Holdings Bhd.

"DRB-Hicom wishes to announce that Bursa Malaysia has approved the request for suspension in the trading of DRB-Hicom securities with effect from 9.00am on Thursday, June 22, 2017, pending the release of a material announcement," it said in an announcement to the bourse.

Last month, DRB-Hicom announced a proposal to sell a 49.9 percent stake in Proton to China-based Geely.

DRB-Hicom also announced that Proton will sell its entire stake in Lotus for 100 million pound sterling (RM556 million).

Geely will take up a 51 percent stake in Lotus while Etika Automotive will take up the remaining 49 percent.

Etika Automotive is owned by Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who also controls DRB-Hicom.

The final deal will be closely watched after critics claimed the deal was lopsided as Geely will be able to secure Lotus, which had been its main interest from the onset, while only having a fork out a small sum of money for Proton.

This was following reports that Geely will take up the 49.9 percent stake in Proton by offering RM770 million, but only RM170 million will be in cash.

Geely will then sell the rights to manufacture and distribute its SUV model Boyue int the Southeast Asia market to Proton, which will cover the remaining RM600 million.

However, Proton later clarified that the RM600 million valuation for the Boyue model was only an example given during a briefing to industry analysts.