Volvo's Sale to Geely Won't Be Derailed

Even if the sale of HUMMER to Sichuan Tengzhong failed to go through, Geely is still in discussion to complete the Volvo acquisition, representatives of the Swedish brand said at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show in Switzerland. Volvo CEO's Stephen Odell said in a statement for Reuters that Ford and Geely are expecting to complete the sale in the first quarter of 2010, which means a final decision is likely to come by the end of March.

"Nothing's changed ... they were planning a signing before the end of the first quarter; it's March 2 – we're in the last month of the first quarter," he was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.

"GM is in a slightly different place than Ford. Hummer is certainly a different company to Volvo (in terms of scale). We're on a growth pattern, we've got a CO2 plant that works – there are some fundamentals that are different," he explained.

Although officials of both Volvo and Geely have always gave assurances that the deal will be completed, sources familiar with the matter revealed that negotiations exceeded the first imposed deadlines, a fact that could easily make us believe that Volvo could miss the Chinese train. Still, Ford announced in December that an agreement will be signed in Q1 2010 while the final signature will be given in the second quarter of this year.

"While some work still remains to be completed before signing – including final documentation, financing and government approvals – Ford and Geely anticipate that a definitive sale agreement will be signed in the first quarter of 2010, with closing of the sale likely to occur in the second quarter 2010, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals."