Geely confident of successful bid for Ford's Volvo

Shanghai, November 2 (Gasgoo.com) Geely's chairman Li Shufu said on Friday that his company is confident its bid for Ford Motor's Volvo unit will be successful, as it seeks to lead Chinese automakers onto the global stage, Reuters reported.

Geely Holding Group, the parent of Geely Automobile, was named by Ford Motor as a preferred bidder for its loss-making Swedish unit Volvo Cars Corp late on Wednesday. Li told Reuters that the talks were still at an early stage and were proceeding cautiously.

"There are lots of details and we're taking our time," said Li. "We will continue to work hard and bring Geely to every corner of the world," Li said in Shanghai on the sidelines of a business event.

Neither Ford nor Geely has disclosed any possible sale price for Volvo, but reportedly it could be closer to $2 billion than the $6.45 billion Ford paid for the Swedish car maker in 1999.

Even at the lower price, that would mark China's biggest buy of foreign auto assets and could provide Geely with state-of-the-art technologies for upgrading its cars to tap the country's booming auto market.

Li said the effort to buy Volvo was aimed at promoting Geely's strategic development as it looks to move beyond the Chinese market, now the world's largest, onto the global stage.