Geely - Volvo Talks Come to a Halt

Even if it plans to complete the Volvo takeover by December, Geely and the Swedish brand are making no progress in the talks as the two companies are still negotiating the terms of the acquisition. The news was confirmed by Ford's CEO Allan Mulally on Friday, Xinhua news reported cited by gasgoo.com.

"Volvo is a good brand, but Ford will sell it in order to shift its main focus on developing the Ford brand," said Mulally.

Volvo and Geely have not commented on the reports so far but according to the aforementioned sources, the two companies have signed a confidentiality agreement that prohibit them to talk about the state of negotiations before reaching a deal.

Geely, who is reportedly the only suitor interested in securing Volvo, is now looking to buy 100 percent of the Swedish company, after initially aiming to take over only a part of the company and let Ford control the remaining share.

As said, the involved parties are hoping to sell Volvo by December but, taking into account the current state of negotiations, such a scenario becomes more and more unlikely. "Ford has a slower pace than GM and Saab and we expect a sale will be completed in the latter part of the year," Swedish industry ministry state secretary Joeran Haegglund said back in August.

A separate piece of news that surfaced last months hinted that Ford wants to delay the sale of Volvo until General Motors picks its favorite in the race for Opel. GM has already announced that it will sell 55 percent of Opel to Magna but, up until now, there's no news regarding a potential bid for Volvo coming from RHJ.