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Geely purchases Lotus, aiming to challenge Porsche

Nancy From Gasgoo| October 12 , 2017 16:48 BJT

Geely purchases Lotus, aiming to challenge Porsche

Shanghai (Gasgoo)-On June 23, Zhejiang Geely Holding signed an agreement with DRB-HICOM to purchase Proton Auto's 49.9% shares, becoming the exclusive foreign strategic partner of Proton Auto. One hundred days later on Sept. 29, the both sides held a joint media conference to announce new executive team for Proton and the future products plan. During the conference, Geely also officially announced that it purchased 51% shares of Lotus, which is British luxury roadster brand under Proton Auto. During the day, Lotus's new board of directors was also established. Li Donghui, Executive Vice President and CFO of Geely Holding, served as the Chairman of Lotus' new board of directors. Nathan Yu Ning, who is the Vice President of International Business and Executive Advisor to the President at Geely Holding, was appointed as member of board of directors. Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Lotus will continually stay in his position. According to Geely's strategy, it will compete with Porsche.

Geely boasts a speedy development since it acquired 100% stake of Volvo with RMB 1.8 billion in 2012. After the purchase, Geely started to shape its own design style in both exterior and interior for new models, and also learned core technologies of the vehicle, largely promoting the quality for Geely's new models.

Geely showcased the LYNK&CO vehicle brand on Auto Shanghai 2017, showing Geely has made a great improvement in going upscale. Though it hasn't hit the market, the new model has caught much attention from the public due to its pure Volvo genes. Thanks to the deepening cooperation with Volvo, Geely will be experienced in researching and developing new models.

Thing were changed as time pass by, Geely is no longer what it was ten years ago. Now it is a multinational automaker that possesses Volvo, Proton and Lotus. With the purchase of Lotus, it will be competitive enough to rival with Porsche.

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