At Sunday afternoon Ford and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed the contract about the sales of Swedish car maker Volvo Personvagnar. Representatives from both the Chinese and Swedish government were present when Li Shufu (the founder of Geely), Lewis Booth (Ford’s Chief Financial Officer) and Stephen Odell (President of Volvo Cars) held a press conference.

The price tag for Volvo PV ended up at $1.8 billion, far from the $6 billion Ford paid for the company in 1999.

The Volvo headquarters will remain in Gothenburg, Sweden, along with research and development. The fabrication will not move from Sweden and Belgium, but a Chinese Volvo plant might be considered – but only for cars made for the Chinese market.

“My belief is that the factories in Gothenburg and Gent will remain for a long time. This will not change because of the new ownership.”, Geely’s Li Shufus. “I want to emphasize that Volvo is Volvo and Geely is Geely – Volvo will be run by Volvo management.”

More reading:
Volvo in a Deal to Be Sold to Company in China – NY Times