Rolls Royce, Bentley available here soon

Auto Prominence Corp. (APC), the company that was spun off from the financially distressed Proton Pilipinas Corp. (PPC), is planning to bring into the country Rolls Royce and Bentley cars.

This was indicated by APC financial adviser Ernesto V. Tan to the Board of Investments (BOI) in a letter dated March 20.

APC, meanwhile, is initially seeking the BOI’s approval to bring in four variant models of Volkswagen under category II of the car development program.

The Volkswagen variant models included in the APC list are the GOL 1.6 MT and 1.8 MT four-door hatchback, and the Parati 1.6 MT and 1.8 MT four-door wagon passenger cars.

APC is discussing with Volkswagen AG of Germany the possibility of consigning to APC the required jigs and tools for the assembly of these models.

APC would initially import the model in semi-knocked down (SKD) form and then subsequently in completely-knocked down (CKD) kits.

APC’s principal shareholders include Automotive Corp. of the Philippines and Asia One.

There was initially some question about the transfer of PPC’s registration in the car development program to APC. However, no less than Malacañang gave the approval for the transfer.

Malacañang in a memorandum dated Jan. 10, 2000 which was given to the Bureau of Customs, the BOI and the Societe Generale de Surveillance, approved the transfer of the validity period of the existing SKD import permits of PPC to APC.