China's Geely Buys Ford Supplier; Close To Buying Volvo?
March 27, 2009
HONG KONG -- China's Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., known to be in talks with Ford to
buy Volvo, announced Friday its purchase of Australian partsmaker Drivetrain Systems International, claimed to be the world's largest supplier of automatic gearboxes. Ford is among Drivetrain's customers.
Geely, China's largest private carmaker, is believed to be furthest along in talks to buy Volvo from Ford. Ford confirmed earlier this week that it was in talks with multiple interested parties about purchasing Volvo.
Geely founder Li Shufu told reporters in Beijing earlier this month that it was considering all sorts of strategies and was closing following developments in the global auto industry.
Geely did not disclose the purchase price of Drivetrain but acknowledged the purchase allows the ambitious Chinese company to expand overseas and to access technology for automatic gearboxes.
Drivetrain Systems already supplies not only Ford but also Chrysler and Korea's Ssangyong Motor Co., which filed bankruptcy last month and is owned by China's largest automaker SAIC, partner to General Motors and Volkswagen to name only two.
Geely said it will continue supplying those companies after the transaction is complete, but will also import the technology to China. The purchase helps Geely add larger, more sophisticated models to its line-up of mostly cheap compacts sold under the Geely and Maple names.
Drivetrain is the world's second-largest maker of automatic gearboxes, making 180,000 automatic gearboxes a year, Bloomberg News reported.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:49 AM under Companies , Ford , Rumors , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
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