浙
江吉利控股集团(Zhejiang Geely Holding Group)周日签订协议，斥资18亿美元收购福特汽车公司(Ford Motor Co.)旗下沃尔沃(Volvo)品牌，这一具有里程碑意义的交易旨在推动吉利在全球汽车产业格局中更上一层楼。吉利收购沃尔沃的交易进一步展示出中国的经济崛起正在怎样重塑全球商业格局，同时中国庞大的市场和日渐强大的公司正如何在从汽车到自然资源、再到电信设备等领域扮演越来越重要的角色。去年中国超过美国成为全球最大的汽车市场，吉利收购沃尔沃的交易是中国公司首次接管一个著名全球汽车品牌。
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
吉利董事长李书福与福特汽车首席财务长布思周日在瑞典歌德堡的沃尔沃总部签署了收购协议
这桩交易对于福特汽车首席执行长艾伦•穆拉利(Alan Mulally)来说也意义非凡，他一直在为公司“卸载”非核心品牌，努力恢复福特的可持续盈利能力。
根据该交易，吉利将向福特支付16亿美元现金和2亿美元票据。不过，福特首席财务长布思(Lewis Booth)说，福特还将承担一些既定养老金计划以及其他债务。两家公司并未透露完成沃尔沃交接工作的时间表。
布思在周日于沃尔沃总部哥德堡举行的新闻发布会上说，我们认为这是收购一个出色业务的合理价格。
福特必须用一半出售沃尔沃所得收入支付公司在2006年借入的债务，但布思说直到交易完成公司才能知道收入的资金总额。
双方的收购协议还需要得到政府批准，然后在第三季度结束前将这家瑞典公司正式移交到吉利手中，而这一交易原本预计会在6月底前完成。
知情人士称，李书福对沃尔沃的构想是，通过利用中国相对廉价的劳动力大幅削减公司在产品研发和生产等重大业务领域的成本。周日，李书福在新闻发布会上说自己并没有合并吉利和沃尔沃品牌的计划，沃尔沃将仍然作为一个独立品牌存在，其目前的管理团队将暂时保留。
吉利是中国最大的私营汽车生产商之一。预计它在消化沃尔沃时将面临艰难的挑战。吉利基本没有在中国以外销售汽车的经验，更不用说在瑞典这样一个相隔万里、与中国迥然不同的国家运营重要的生产业务。吉利全球地位的缺乏，及其过去生产低端车的名声，可能会拖累沃尔沃在质量和性能方面的声誉。
虽然中国企业的影响越来越大，但它们在海外并购方面所获成功不多。就是那些大公司，也普遍缺乏丰富的国际管理经验，它们的企业文化往往是集中化的，与外国公司的企业文化不容易衔接。以联想集团有限公司2005年收购国际商业机器公司(IBM)的个人电脑业务为例，在这宗当年中国最为轰动的海外并购案完成后，联想集团整合这一业务就进行得很艰难。
对于福特来说，由于1999年以64亿美元的价格收购沃尔沃以来两家公司已经深度融合，剥离沃尔沃将会是一个难题。例如在中国，福特、马自达(Mazda Motor Corp.)和重庆长安汽车股份有限公司合资组建的长安福特马自达汽车有限公司(Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corp.)，就生产沃尔沃的S40和S80轿车。
布思说，知识产权协议是福特与沃尔沃之间签署的，其他公司使用相关技术将会受到限制。显然他说的是吉利。
布思说，福特和吉利另外签署了覆盖知识产权的协议，这样做是为了帮助沃尔沃当前业务规划的展开。其实这主要是为了缓和一种担忧：福特与沃尔沃联合开发的技术，将很快落入一家中国公司手中，而这家中国公司预计又将在欧洲、北美市场对福特构成直接竞争。
福特2007年卖掉了阿斯顿-马丁(Aston Martin)，2008年抛掉捷豹(Jaguar)和陆虎(Land Rover)，以及它在马自达中的很大一部分所有权。2009年年初，在外界纷传了好几个月后，福特正式宣布将出售沃尔沃，并确认对沃尔沃的整个投资产生了6.5亿美元的税前减值支出。
沃尔沃的亏损幅度近几年达到了10亿美元以上；在出售沃尔沃接近完成之际，其亏损情况得到了控制。沃尔沃在2009年亏损9.34亿美元，低于2008年16亿美元的亏损幅度。
近几年，由于欧美市场不景气，沃尔沃的销售情况较差。2009年其全球销量为32.4万辆，较2008年下降10%。但据沃尔沃首席执行长奥德尔(Stephen Odell)表示，沃尔沃预计市场将会反弹，计划今年生产汽车39万辆。
今年前两个月，沃尔沃在美国的销量增长了40%。
Matthew Dolan / Norihiko Shirouzu
（更新完成）
China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. bought Volvo cars from Ford Motor Co. on Sunday for $1.8 billion, a landmark agreement designed to elevate the Chinese company's profile onto the global automotive stage.
Geely's acquisition of Volvo offers the latest illustration of how China's economic rise is reshaping large swaths of global business, as its huge market and increasingly powerful companies play a growing role in industries from cars to natural resources to telecommunications equipment. The Volvo deal, which comes after China surpassed the U.S. last year as the biggest auto market, puts a Chinese company for the first time in charge of a major global car brand.
'I think Volvo is a Tiger,' said Li Shufu, chairman of Geely, who confirmed that Geely will build a Volvo plant in China. 'To liberate the tiger we need to think on how to uncover the value in Volvo.'
The sale also marks the latest milestone for Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally, who has pushed the Dearborn, Mich., auto maker to shed noncore brands in an effort to return Ford to sustainable profitability.
Under the deal, Ford will get $1.6 billion in cash and a $200 million note from Geely. Ford, however, will still be obligated to cover some preexisting pension plans and other debt, according to Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth. The companies didn't detail the timeline for the transition period.
'We think it's a fair price for a good business,' Mr. Booth said at a Sunday press conference at Volvo's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Ford must use about half of its sale proceeds to help pay down the $23.5 billion in debt the company secured in 2006, but Mr. Booth said it was still unclear what the total proceeds of the sale would be until the transfer is complete.
The purchase agreement still needs government approvals, followed by an official transfer of the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company before the end of the third quarter-a push back from the original deadline to close the deal by the end of June.
Mr. Li's vision for Volvo is to radically slash the Swedish brand's costs for some of its primary activities, such as product-development and manufacturing, by tapping the relatively cheap labor available in China, people familiar with the situation say. On Sunday, Mr. Li said at a joint press conference he doesn't plan to merge Volvo and Geely. Volvo would remain as an independent brand, and Mr. Li would retain Volvo's current management team for the time being, he said.
Geely, one of China's biggest privately owned auto makers, is expected to face tough challenges in absorbing Volvo. It has little experience selling cars outside China, let alone running major manufacturing operations in a country as far away and as different from China as Sweden. Geely's lack of global stature, and its past reputation for making low-end vehicles, could be a drag on Volvo's reputation for quality and performance.
Despite their growing heft, Chinese companies have had limited success with overseas acquisitions. Even the biggest Chinese companies generally lack extensive international management experience, and they tend to have highly centralized corporate cultures that don't mesh easily with those of foreign companies. Lenovo Group Ltd., for example, struggled to integrate the personal-computer business of International Business Machines Corp.'s after it bought the operation in 2005, in what was then China's highest-profile overseas acquisition.
For Ford, a challenge will be pulling Volvo out of its operations, having deeply integrated the two since Volvo's purchase for $6.4 billion in 1999. In China, for example, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corp.-a joint venture among Ford, Mazda Motor Corp., and the Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.-produces the Volvo S40 and the S80 sedans.
'The intellectual property agreements are between Ford and Volvo,' Mr. Booth said, adding that other uses of the technology, evidently for Geely, would be limited.
Mr. Booth said that Ford and Geely signed separate agreements covering intellectual property to aid Volvo's current business plan. But it was largely designed to address a fear that jointly developed technologies by Ford and Volvo will soon be in the hands of a Chinese company expected to become a direct Ford competitor in Europe and North America.
In 2007 Ford sold Aston Martin, and in 2008 the auto maker shed Jaguar Land Rover and a significant portion of its ownership in Mazda. Early last year, after months of speculation, Ford officially reported Volvo was for sale, and it recognized a pretax impairment charge of $650 million related to its total investment in the Swedish company.
As Ford neared the completion of the Volvo sale, the brand has been able to stem its losses, which had grown to more than a $1 billion in recent years. Volvo lost $934 million in 2009, down from $1.6 billion loss in 2008.
Volvo sales have suffered in recent years amid a downturn in the U.S. and Europe markets. Volvo sold 324,000 cars around the world in 2009, down 10% over 2008 figures. But Volvo expects the market to rebound and is scheduled to build 390,000 vehicles this year, according to Volvo Chief Executive Stephen Odell.
In the first two months of this year Volvo sales in the U.S. are up 40%.
Matthew Dolan / Norihiko Shirouzu
Geely's acquisition of Volvo offers the latest illustration of how China's economic rise is reshaping large swaths of global business, as its huge market and increasingly powerful companies play a growing role in industries from cars to natural resources to telecommunications equipment. The Volvo deal, which comes after China surpassed the U.S. last year as the biggest auto market, puts a Chinese company for the first time in charge of a major global car brand.
'I think Volvo is a Tiger,' said Li Shufu, chairman of Geely, who confirmed that Geely will build a Volvo plant in China. 'To liberate the tiger we need to think on how to uncover the value in Volvo.'
The sale also marks the latest milestone for Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally, who has pushed the Dearborn, Mich., auto maker to shed noncore brands in an effort to return Ford to sustainable profitability.
Under the deal, Ford will get $1.6 billion in cash and a $200 million note from Geely. Ford, however, will still be obligated to cover some preexisting pension plans and other debt, according to Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth. The companies didn't detail the timeline for the transition period.
'We think it's a fair price for a good business,' Mr. Booth said at a Sunday press conference at Volvo's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Ford must use about half of its sale proceeds to help pay down the $23.5 billion in debt the company secured in 2006, but Mr. Booth said it was still unclear what the total proceeds of the sale would be until the transfer is complete.
The purchase agreement still needs government approvals, followed by an official transfer of the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company before the end of the third quarter-a push back from the original deadline to close the deal by the end of June.
Mr. Li's vision for Volvo is to radically slash the Swedish brand's costs for some of its primary activities, such as product-development and manufacturing, by tapping the relatively cheap labor available in China, people familiar with the situation say. On Sunday, Mr. Li said at a joint press conference he doesn't plan to merge Volvo and Geely. Volvo would remain as an independent brand, and Mr. Li would retain Volvo's current management team for the time being, he said.
Geely, one of China's biggest privately owned auto makers, is expected to face tough challenges in absorbing Volvo. It has little experience selling cars outside China, let alone running major manufacturing operations in a country as far away and as different from China as Sweden. Geely's lack of global stature, and its past reputation for making low-end vehicles, could be a drag on Volvo's reputation for quality and performance.
Despite their growing heft, Chinese companies have had limited success with overseas acquisitions. Even the biggest Chinese companies generally lack extensive international management experience, and they tend to have highly centralized corporate cultures that don't mesh easily with those of foreign companies. Lenovo Group Ltd., for example, struggled to integrate the personal-computer business of International Business Machines Corp.'s after it bought the operation in 2005, in what was then China's highest-profile overseas acquisition.
For Ford, a challenge will be pulling Volvo out of its operations, having deeply integrated the two since Volvo's purchase for $6.4 billion in 1999. In China, for example, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corp.-a joint venture among Ford, Mazda Motor Corp., and the Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.-produces the Volvo S40 and the S80 sedans.
'The intellectual property agreements are between Ford and Volvo,' Mr. Booth said, adding that other uses of the technology, evidently for Geely, would be limited.
Mr. Booth said that Ford and Geely signed separate agreements covering intellectual property to aid Volvo's current business plan. But it was largely designed to address a fear that jointly developed technologies by Ford and Volvo will soon be in the hands of a Chinese company expected to become a direct Ford competitor in Europe and North America.
In 2007 Ford sold Aston Martin, and in 2008 the auto maker shed Jaguar Land Rover and a significant portion of its ownership in Mazda. Early last year, after months of speculation, Ford officially reported Volvo was for sale, and it recognized a pretax impairment charge of $650 million related to its total investment in the Swedish company.
As Ford neared the completion of the Volvo sale, the brand has been able to stem its losses, which had grown to more than a $1 billion in recent years. Volvo lost $934 million in 2009, down from $1.6 billion loss in 2008.
Volvo sales have suffered in recent years amid a downturn in the U.S. and Europe markets. Volvo sold 324,000 cars around the world in 2009, down 10% over 2008 figures. But Volvo expects the market to rebound and is scheduled to build 390,000 vehicles this year, according to Volvo Chief Executive Stephen Odell.
In the first two months of this year Volvo sales in the U.S. are up 40%.
Matthew Dolan / Norihiko Shirouzu
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