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Volvo sale 'next week'
30 July 2010
Ford plans to complete the sale of Volvo to Chinese company Geely next week, according to financial website Bloomberg.
China’s Ministry of Commerce, the government regulator of major acquisitions, has cleared the sale which was first agreed in March this year.
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Geely shares have soared 11 per cent in response. Volvo is to be sold for $1.8 billion (£1,151m), less than a third of what Ford paid for the company in 1999.
Once the sale is complete, Ford chief executive Alan Mulally will have sold all the company’s European brands, including Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin, since arriving at the company in 2006. Mulally is committed to focusing only on Ford's core brands in Europe.
Volvo had pre-tax profit of $53 million (£33.9m) in the second quarter, compared with a $237 million (£151m) loss a year earlier, Ford said last week.
Geely’s London spokesman declined to comment on the timing of the deal.
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