While Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is Ford’s preferred bidder for Volvo, media reports said Swedish consortium Jakob AB is also vying to buy the loss-making brand.
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“We have informed Ford that we are ready to make a financed bid for Volvo,” Jakob AB’s chief executive Peder Fast told Swedish news agency TT, according to an AFP report. He added the consortium emailed Ford on 4 December.
That would make Jakob the third bidder for the Swedish brand. In addition to Geely, another consortium led by two former Ford executives, called Crown, raised its bid last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Fast said Jakob had signalled its firm interest to determine whether Ford was interested in rival bids.
“The important thing is whether Ford is interested in receiving a bid. It takes two to tango,” Fast said.
He did not disclose how Ford had reacted to its offer. “I’d rather keep those relations to myself.”
He added that Jakob AB started out as a Swedish-only consortium but has since expanded to include foreign investors.
Fast told TT that while no price was mentioned in its contacts with Ford, its offer was in line with the other bids for Volvo Cars.
No figures have been revealed for any of the bids, but Geely’s is estimated around US$2bn (EUR1.34bn), according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ford paid $6.4bn for Volvo in 1999 and announced the unit’s sale in December 2008 as part of current CEO Alan Mulally’s back-to-basics approach for the automaker.
Volvo was once part of the Premier Auto Group (PAG) set up by expansionist former CEO, Australian Jac Nasser. Most of the acquisitions Ford made on his watch (ended abruptly by chairman Bill Ford), including other one-time PAG brands Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, and an aftermarket tyre/exhaust fast fit chain, have since been sold off.
Geely said on 27 November it had reached an agreement with Ford to own the intellectual property rights to Volvo’s key technologies, including those related to safety and the environment, through its purchase of the Volvo unit.
