Geely Auto aims to sell a third more vehicles next year and will continue to seek acquisition opportunities.
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“The battered US and European auto markets continue to provide us with buying opportunities,” executive director Lawrence Ang told reporters after the company’s shareholder meeting on Monday (7 December, 2009).
Geely, China’s largest private car maker, had been in talks on Saab, which General Motors has put up for sale, but the talks ended without result some time ago, he said.
“I had looked into Saab, but GM did not come back to us. Maybe they found our terms were not good enough,” Ang said – but hasn’t ruled out returning to the negotiating table if GM comes back to Geely.
Geely, whose parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is Ford’s preferred bidder for Volvo, is particularly interested in acquisitions that would bolster its parts and engines production.
It paid up to US$40m for Australian automatic transmission supplier Drivetrain Systems International in the first half of the year and plans to increase capital spending by 43% next year to expand capacity and build a new model platform, Ang said.
