Ford still intent on selling Volvo car brand

U.S. motor giant Ford will definitely sell its Swedish car brand Volvo, its finance chief told Swedish news agency TT on Tuesday.

In an interview at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Ford finance chief Lewis Booth said that Ford had ruled out keeping loss-making Volvo Cars.

"We plan to sell," Booth said. "It's not about Volvo, but because we want to focus on Ford. The situation for Ford around the world is still tough. Ford is still losing money."

He said the company needs to focus its financial resources "and that's why we started looking at selling Volvo and we want to continue with the process for the same reason."

Geely Holding Group Co, parent of China's Geely Automotive, has expressed interest in bidding for the Swedish group which media reports have valued at close to $2 billion.

However, interviewed in daily Dagens Industri on Tuesday, Volvo Car Chief Executive Stephen Odell said the Chinese firm had now denied preparing a bid.

"They clarified at the weekend that they had never made such a statement," Odell was quoted as saying.