Geely given green light to buy Volvo
Ford have finally given Geely the green light to buy Volvo, basically telling us everything we knew months ago:
Reuters:
U.S. Ford Motor said in a statement on Wednesday it had agreed all substantial commercial terms in a deal to sell its Volvo Car Corporation unit to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, parent of Geely Auto.
“While some work still remains to be completed before signing … Ford and Geely anticipate that a definitive sale agreement will be signed in the first quarter of 2010,” Ford said, adding the deal was seen closed in the second quarter.
The estimated $1.8 billion deal would be the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker. It follows the recent purchase by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co of assets from General Motors’ Swedish unit Saab.
Chinese carmakers are taking advantage of a crisis-sparked shake-up of the auto industry, tapping into Western brands while taking advantage of a fast-growing home market, which is seen passing the United States this year.
However, there is still a significant technology gap between domestic Chinese automakers and their global rivals, which has left the Chinese looking for acquisitions of overseas technology and designs as the global auto industry restructures.
Hopefully Volvo engineers can help Geely out.
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
RSS Feed
perhaps in china buyers would care less, but abroad I seriously doubt it. At best I beleive u will still see some negative sales impact. Volvo used to be known for innovation in the safety sapect of vehicles. Will the new management continue in this direction? It all depends on what their new management strategy will be. Buyers look at this sort of thing. Sorry, I just can find a happy outlook for this brand, in my opinion it’s really up in the air and the Chinese are gonna have to step up to the plate if they want this to be a happy story. There are examples of poorly managed foreign acquisition in different sectors that come to mind: tcl and thomson for example. Come to think of it, what success story do u know of? (not that I pretend that there aren’t any, just that I don’t know them!) success would be determined by sales growth and market share in western markets for a Chinese company in a high tec sector via an aquisition… Htc?