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Geely may take part in a bid for Ssangyong, a South Korean subsidiary of Indian carmaker Mahindra, Bloomberg reported. In addition, according to South Korean media reports, Ssangyong Motor, which is in trouble, is looking for new investors and has chosen Samsung Securities to cooperate with Rothschild, a well-known global financial family, to attract market interest.

Due to the sluggish sales of products, low R & D funds and other factors, Ssangyong Motor fell into a business crisis. So far, Ssangyong has suffered losses for 13 consecutive quarters. In terms of sales, Ssangyong sold 31110 vehicles in South Korea from January to May, down 35 per cent from a year earlier.

According to public information, Mahindra, founded in 1945, is one of the largest car companies in India and one of the largest tractor manufacturers in the world. Ssangyong Motors, founded in 1954, is a well-known car company in South Korea, its main model is SUV.

In March 2011, Mahindra announced that it had successfully acquired a 70 per cent stake in Ssangyong Motor for 523 billion won (3.024 billion yuan), making it the company's largest shareholder. Since 2013, Ssangyong has conducted two rounds of rights issues worth 130 billion won (752 million yuan), and Maheng's stake in Ssangyong currently stands at 74.65%.

Nine years have passed since the acquisition, and now under the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic, Ssangyong Motor has once again fallen into a business crisis. Earlier this year, Ma Hengda promised to inject 230 billion won into Ssangyong over the next three years, but it was not immune from the epidemic. Ma Hengda held a board meeting in April to cancel a planned capital increase of 230 billion won (1.34 billion yuan) in Ssangyong.

Ma Hengda's decision triggered a round in the industry, with many speculating that Ma Hengda would sell the lossmaking Ssangyong car and then withdraw from the South Korean market. In response, a Ssangyong spokesman said: "Mahengda will inject 40 billion won (about 230 million yuan) of emergency funds this year to help the South Korean branch continue to operate."

Industry insiders said that regardless of whether Maheng Hengda sold Ssangyong completely or not, Ssangyong has begun to sell almost all the salable assets except two factories in order to obtain capital that can be "self-reliant", but due to the lack of new models, whether it can make it through this year is still an unknown problem.

There is no doubt that Geely has once again become a rumored acquirer. In 2010, Geely bought Volvo cars for $1.8 billion, making it one of the top 500 companies in the world. In 2013, Geely bought the business and core assets of Manganese Bronze Holdings and took over the London electric car company for 11.04 million pounds. In 2017, Geely acquired 49.9 percent of DRB-HICOM 's Proton cars and 51 percent of luxury sports car brand Lutes. In 2018, Geely bought 9.69% of Daimler Group for $9 billion, making it the largest shareholder in Daimler Group. At present, Geely owns Geely, Geometry, Lecker, Proton and Lutes brands, while Volvo owns Volvo and Polar Star brands.

It is worth mentioning that the rise in Lifan's share price today has also triggered market speculation that Geely will buy Lifan shares. Based on market information, Geely Yang Xueliang responded on Weibo, saying "there is no such plan" and "there is no such thing".

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