There are reports coming out of China today stating that Geely have signed a preliminary agreement with Ford to purchase Volvo.
From Auto Motor and Sport:
It is the English-language newspaper Shanghai Daily, which writes that Geely will buy Volvo. A delegation from Geely have visited Volvo’s headquarters in Gothenburg, and a preliminary agreement should be clear.
Shanghai Daily writes that Geely has plans to move production of the next generation XC90 to a factory in the city of Dongguan, Guangzhou Province, and refers to data from the National Business Daily.
A little more from The Local:
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Jia Xinguang, an analyst with the Chinese National Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Corporation reckons that Volvo would not be sold for less than $3 billion, the Shanghai Daily reports.
Ford purchased Volvo Cars in 1999 for around $6.5 billion.
For their part, Volvo are playing dumb on the whole issue:
A Volvo spokesperson told the TT news agency on Thursday that the company had no knowledge of any agreement to sell the Swedish automaker to Geely.
“Ford is in charge of the sale. We don’t know anything here,” said Volvo’s Maria Bohlin.
I know, as a Saab enthusiast, that I’m particularly pleased that they’re staying in primarily Swedish hands. I can only imagine there’s a bit of dread around right now at the thought of an even larger Swedish icon passing into Chinese hands.
So how’s the reaction over there?
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