Geely to be rivaled by Swedish group in Volvo bid

Shanghai, December 9 (Gasgoo.com) A consortium dominated by Swedish participants aims to rival China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group by submitting a cash bid for Ford Motor's Volvo car unit, Reuters reported earlier this week.

Konsortium Jakob AB, initiated by the engineers' trade union at Volvo Cars, has emerged as the third bidder for the Swedish car brand. It will be the second rival for Chinese carmaker Geely, which Ford has picked as the preferred bidder. The U.S. group Crown, led by former Ford Motor director Michael Dingman, submitted a revised bid last week.

"We have told Ford that we are ready to submit a cash bid, that we have investors backing this," said Peder Fast, Konsortium Jakob AB's CEO, adding that the consortium would move forward with a bid for the Swedish car unit if Ford gave a positive response.

The consortium has been in contact with Ford to express interest in the automaker. It's unclear yet how Ford will respond to the new offer. Ford's naming Geely as a favored bidder indicates the new offer could face an uphill battle winning support.

Geely, one of China's biggest private automakers, is financing a roughly $2 billon bid for Volvo with a mix of cash, bank loans and funds from a small number of investors. "Money is not a problem for Geely," said one source.