BEIJING: China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group said today its Volvo Cars would explore capital market options including a potential initial public offering (IPO) and stock market listing.
Geely bought Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co in 2010. Geely’s Hong Kong-listed unit Geely Automobile and Volvo Cars scrapped their full merger plan in February.
Geely’s revived consideration of an IPO for Volvo Cars could value the business at around US$20 billion (RM83bil), Bloomberg reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.
A Volvo Cars spokesman said the firm would not comment on speculation.
n IPO of Volvo would add to globe-spanning ties and partnerships in vehicle manufacturing of Li Shufu, Geely Holding’s founder and chairman. Li is Daimler AG’s biggest shareholder and owns the second-largest stake in Volvo AB, the Swedish truckmaker, as well as control of sports-car maker Lotus and London’s iconic black cabs.
This year alone, Li has forged ties with search-engine heavyweight Baidu Inc., Apple Inc.’s Taiwanese manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group and Tencent Holdings Ltd., to keep pace with the quickening shift to electrification and more software in cars.
Volvo this month set an ambitious goal to only sell cars powered by a battery from 2030.
The pledge, which goes even further than plans announced by Volkswagen AG or BMW AG, puts Volvo on the trajectory of EV-only newcomers. Their soaring valuations - with China’s NIO Inc. roughly on par with BMW - have been a wake-up call to longstanding manufacturers.
Geely Holding, China’s biggest manufacturer of local-branded conventional automobiles, has also been plowing resources into electric vehicles. Geely and Volvo’s jointly-held brand Lynk & Co. will start shipments to Europe in April of its China-made 01 SUV.
Geely also controls electric-vehicle maker Polestar, which is exploring options to go public as soon as this year in the US or Hong Kong, Bloomberg News reported earlier Wednesday.
Polestar, which is jointly owned by Volvo and Geely, launched the electric Polestar 2 in 2019 to challenge Tesla Inc.’s Model 3. — Additional details from Bloomberg
