Geely denies using money from state-owned asset on Daimler stake acquisition

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Tuesday, Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Automobile Group, restated that the Hangzhou-based company didn’t use domestic funds to acquire Daimler’s stakes, as a response to the speculations on the fund sources.

Last week, Geely announced that with a 9.7 percent stake in Daimler, it has become the largest shareholder of the German automaker. Based on Daimler’s share price, it is calculated that the deal price is about 9 billion dollars, which was denied by Li Donghui, Geely’s executive vice president.

Even though Geely has made it clear that the deal is to be completed via overseas investment subjects, kinds of speculation on funds sources follow. Reports said that the capital was mainly from a local state-owned asset with a small amount from overseas. The acquisition is likely to be similar to that of acquiring Volvo Cars eight years ago.

The report also pointed out that Cedarlake Capital, as the fund supporter, helped Geely complete the deal. The investment company was founded in 2016 by Bao Yi, former CEO of Morgan Stanley's Huaxin Securities and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Asia, and other international investment leaders.

However, Bloomberg quoted the words of people familiar with the matter, saying that Bank of American Corp. led the transaction with the help of Morgan Stanley. Relevant parties declined to comment on the report.