AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/05 Report--

Volvo plans to IPO and list on the Nasdaq Stockholm Stock Exchange, and its new shares will raise a total of about 25 billion Swedish kronor (18.5 billion yuan), Volvo's official website said on Oct. 4.

On IPO, Volvo CEO Hanken Samuelson said, "the decision to move forward with IPO will help enhance our brand and accelerate the transformation strategy of fully electrified, user-directed and higher levels of security. This will help the company achieve continuous growth in sales, revenue and profitability. "

Volvo said that the listing committee of the Nasdaq Stockholm Stock Exchange had assessed Volvo cars to meet the listing requirements. The first trading day is expected to be in 2021. During the IPO process, AMF and Folksam have pledged to convert 2.2 per cent of their preferred shares into class B common shares. Further announcements and prospectuses about the planned IPO will be issued in due course.

In fact, Volvo has been exploring the path of IPO. As early as 2018, Volvo started the process of listing, hiring top investment banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to coach Volvo, when Geely valued Volvo at $160 to $30 billion. Volvo was valued at $12 to $18 billion, which was so different that the listing had to be terminated.

In February 2020, Geely announced that it was discussing with Volvo the possibility of business merger and restructuring, and said it planned to list the combined business in Hong Kong and Stockholm to enable it to enter the capital market. Geely will be docked with global capital after the restructuring. However, the two sides failed to reach a merger in accordance with the expected plan.

In February 2021, Geely announced the latest merger with Volvo Group. Geely Holdings said in the announcement that after a detailed study of various merger options, the two sides have found the best merger plan, that is, on the basis of maintaining their existing independent company structure, will merge and cooperate in powertrain, electrification, autopilot and other business areas.

On May 13, 2021, Volvo officially announced that its board of directors has decided to re-evaluate the possibility of IPO and is expected to be listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange of Sweden later this year. However, the final decision on listing depends on the market environment, and there is no official guarantee that the listing will take place.

Data show that Volvo is a well-known Swedish luxury car brand, once translated as a tycoon, founded in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1927. In 1999, Volvo Group sold its Volvo car business to Ford Motor of the United States. In 2010, Geely Holdings acquired the Volvo car business from Ford and acquired the ownership of the Volvo car brand, which is also a famous case of "snake swallowing elephant" in automobile history.

In the ten years since Geely acquired Volvo, although the competition in the car market is becoming more and more fierce, Volvo's sales and performance are still considerable with the support of Geely. Volvo sold 705500 cars worldwide in 2019, up 9.8 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data. This is the first time in the 93 years since its establishment that Volvo has sold more than 700000 vehicles, of which the Chinese market is Volvo's largest single market, with sales of 161000 vehicles, setting a record for sales in China. Volvo sold 661700 cars worldwide in 2020, falling due to the global epidemic, but the Chinese market hit a record high again, up 7.6 per cent from a year earlier to 166300. Volvo's cumulative global sales in the first three quarters of 2021 were 530600, up 17.6 per cent from a year earlier, of which the Chinese market was 132600, up 17.1 per cent from a year earlier.

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