Ford Confirms Geely as Preferred Volvo Bidder

The European brands owned by American companies have been in a lot of turmoil lately, along with the whole industry. General Motors is nearing completion of the sale of its Saab subsidiary to Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg.

Ford has already sold off luxury brands Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover. The future of Opel is still up in the air along with Ford's ongoing efforts to sell Volvo.

For months now, reports have indicated that China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd, or Geely, has been the leader in bidding. Ford recently confirmed this assumption, announcing that they are the "preferred" bidder.

“Ford’s objective in our discussions with Geely is to secure an agreement that is in the best interests of all the parties....any prospective sale would have to ensure that Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise, while enabling Ford to continue to focus on and implement our core ONE Ford strategy,” says Lewis Booth, Ford’s Chief Financial Officer.

I don't doubt that the recent Ford strategy has been successful, but I do question the wisdom of selling a valuable asset like Volvo. Volvo has contributed a lot to safety and other areas in mainstream Ford products.

However, it sounds like the two will still work together after the sale. Ford says that “Any sale also would need to take into account the significant connections between Ford and Volvo in terms of continuing component supply, engineering and manufacturing.” Hopefully a sale is done quickly, unlike the back-and-forth uncertainty surrounding Opel.