Geely says in detailed talks with Ford on Volvo deal

Shanghai, November 27 (Gasgoo.com) China's Geely Holding Group said today it was having a detailed and in-depth discussion with Ford Motor over relevant terms and contracts about acquiring Volvo, Xinhua news reported.

Last week union leaders at Ford Motor's Volvo car unit held their first talks with Geely, but the Chinese carmaker wouldn't specify where it's getting financial backing for a bid to buy Volvo. However, the leaders guessed that the government may ultimately be behind the takeover.

Geely has expressed its intentions to keep production in Europe, assuring that Volvo's main plants in Sweden and Belgium will stay open. Volvo will retain the rights for its licensed technologies, and its buyer Geely will get the right to use them, a Geely spokesman said earlier this month.

Geely has said it will build a new Volvo plant in China with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles and will boost Volvo's annual global sales to one million cars within five years from the current about 400,000 units.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the parent of Geely Auto, was named by Ford Motor in late October as a preferred bidder for its loss-making Swedish car unit Volvo.

Ford and Geely have not disclosed a possible sale price for Volvo, but analysts said it could be closer to $2 billion than the $6.45 billion Ford paid for the Swedish carmaker in 1999.