Ford finals deal to sell Volvo to Geely for $1.8 billion

The vice president of Ford, Lewis Booth and chairman of Geely Li Shufu announced in a press conference in Gothenburg, Sweden that the companies have finalized a deal for selling Volvo to the Chinese manufacturer. The final purchase price is $ 1.8 billion including physical assets and intellectual property.

Geely will completely own Volvo while Ford will keep any equity stake. Due to the sharing of components between Ford models and existing Volvo vehicles, Ford agreed to continue the supply of stamping, power trains and other systems to Volvo for a transition period unannounced. The most difficult aspect of this deal is perhaps the situation of intellectual property. Licenses will be granted to Volvo for using some technology owned by Ford and will be having the ability to give permission to third parties to share the license including Geely.

Li was committed for keeping the Geely and Volvo brands separate while trying to reach throughout the world particularly in China. He also said that Volvo would be maintaining a manufacturing trace in Sweden.

It is expected that the sale would close in nearly the end of this year pending approvals regarding regulations. Not like the sale of Hummer, the government of China is likely to approve this deal since Geely is a part of car business. Official press releases can be referred for more information.