Conglomerate Sime Darby said it had no plans to buy a stake in national carmaker Proton, following reports that it would buy into the troubled automaker.

"Strategically, we are assemblers and this is our core competency ... it does not make sense for us to go backwards as we have no experience there," Sime chief executive Ahmad Zubir Murshid told reporters after the company's annual shareholders' meeting.

The Edge financial weekly last month quoted unnamed sources saying Sime was planning to buy a 32 percent stake in Proton from the government's investment arm, Khazanah Nasional.

Khazanah owns a 42.7 percent stake in the car manufacturer.

Analysts have said that Proton, whose sales have declined due to stiff competition from imports, must overhaul itself and forge an alliance with a foreign partner to arrest declining sales and remain viable.

The 20-year-old firm recently announced a RM12.35 million net loss in its first quarter to June, compared with a profit of RM166.47 million a year earlier.

Proton previously said it would continue to initiate and consider various business opportunities and technical collaborations, including those with German auto giant Volkswagen, but that no deals had been reached.

To assemble BMW 5 series

Ahmad Zubir also said Sime Darby, which currently distributes BMW, Ford, Land Rover, Alfa Romeo and Hyundai cars, was holding talks to become the assembler of Hyundai and BMW cars in the Southeast Asian region.

"We are in talks to assemble Hyundai and BMW cars in Malaysia ... we hope to be their Asean assembler," he said.

He said Sime expected to assemble the new BMW 5 series by the first quarter of next year, and the new BMW 3 series later.

Sime, through unit Hyundai-Sime Darby, also plans to assemble the Hyundai Getz model locally within a year, he added.

Ahmad Zubir said Hyundai and BMW were more likely to set up facilities here after the government last week unveiled the framework for its forthcoming national auto policy.

The framework, released as part of efforts to rival Thailand as a regional automotive centre, removes protection for national carmakers such as Proton and offers incentives to foreign makers that set up in Malaysia.