Beijing Hainachuan Automotive Parts Co Ltd (Hainachuan) will acquire 100 percent of the stock of the Netherlands’ Inalfa Roof Systems Group (IRS), China Business News reported Friday, citing an internal announcement from the Netherlands company’s China office.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd (owner of Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) which is the owner of Beijing Auto), which holds a 60 percent share in Hainachuan, will keep IRS’s management team and its headquarters in the Netherlands, the newspaper reported.

Hainachuan and IRS, which makes automobile sunroofs, signed the stock transfer agreement on April 16. The companies expect to complete the stock transfer in June following government approval, which might take six to eight weeks, the report said.

Hainachuan is a joint venture of Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd and Beijing Industrial Development Investment Management Co Ltd.

Via: ChinaDaily.

Press release by IRS:

Inalfa shares sold to BHAP

Inalfa is one of the world’s largest suppliers of vehicle roof systems. The company designs, develops and manufactures sunroofs and open-roof systems for the leading car manufacturers around the globe, including BMW Group, Daimler, Chrysler Group, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Citroën, Chery, Geely, Hyundai Kia, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Renault, Nissan and many others. Inalfa combines its outstanding best-in-class engineering capabilities and a global footprint, with facilities in Europe, USA, South Korea, China, Brazil, Mexico and Japan, to benefit its customers.

This transaction is a landmark for Inalfa, emerging as a clear market leader following years of investment in innovation and global presence, as well as for AAC Capital Partners, concluding a fruitful strategic cooperation with Inalfa’s management team.

Marcel Schabos, CEO of Inalfa, says:
“I am grateful to all at Inalfa and AAC Capital Partners for their contribution and support over the past years helping to transform the company into what it is now – a healthy, market-leading innovator in vehicle roof systems. I am confident that with this new step in Inalfa’s evolution we will continue delivering state-of-the-art products to our clients and be able to take advantage of the considerable growth opportunities in Asia”.

Marc Staal, Managing Partner of AAC Capital Partners in the Benelux, adds:
“We are proud to have supported Inalfa and its outstanding management team. Having invested significantly in innovation, we are confident that the company will continue building on its key strengths of advanced technology, best-in-class engineering capabilities, product integrity and customer relations.”

BHAP is one of the leading automotive parts manufacturers in China. As part of BHAP’s international strategy to expand to the global automotive parts market, the strategic acquisition of Inalfa will further diversify BHAP’s product portfolio, strengthen its R&D and marketing capabilities as well as its competitiveness. BHAP’s management is confident that after this acquisition, Inalfa will grow even more rapidly with improving market share and financial profitability.

The transaction needs to be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China and is subject to antitrust clearance.

Lincoln International is acting as financial advisor to the shareholders of Inalfa and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is acting as their legal advisor.

China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) announced Wednesday that it had purchased all equipment and technologies from a Swedish transmission plant for 31 million euros ($42.5 million).

Ma Tongli, deputy general manager of BAIC, said the purchases from WEIGL Transmission Plant AB (WTP) were well worth the cost, as the equipment and technologies allowed it to build a production line which would normally cost 680 million yuan ($103 million).

More importantly, BAIC obtained technologies in transmission production and quality control as well as management and training support from the deal, which were of “great significance” to BAIC, said Ma.

The deal came one year after BAIC acquired intellectual property rights from General Motors’ Swedish unit Saab.State-owned BAIC, the fifth largest automaker in China, acquired the technologies for Saab’s 9-3 and 9-5 car models, turbine engines and gearboxes for 140 million euros in December 2009.

Ma said BAIC aimed to absorb these technologies and forge its own ability in design, development and building of advanced gearboxes during the next five years.

Via: ChinaDaily.

“Former glory”? Good, get us a 480ES with real horsepower. The robots and tooling for the factory are surely still somewhere in the Netherlands, the Dutch never throw anything away. Over to the rest of the story:

From Xinhua, 020810. Chinese car maker Geely Holdings Group Co. Ltd. said Monday it has completed its 1.8 billion U.S. dollar-buyout of Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo unit, in a landmark foreign acquisition by a Chinese company.

At a handover ceremony held in London, Ford delivered all of its Volvo assets to Geely Holdings Group, after the deal won approval from regulators in China, the United States and the European Union.

In a telephone interview with Xinhua, Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Group and Volvo Car Corporation, said he hopes to restore Volvo to a leading position in the global luxury auto market.

“After the takeover, Geely remains Geely and Volvo is still Volvo. The relationship between the two companies is brotherhood and not a parent-and-child relationship,” Li told Xinhua.

“Volvo should enjoy a much better position in the global market given its quality, technology, research and development abilities and its brand value,” he added.

He said Volvo will remain headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, with management having autonomy to execute its own business plan.

As part of its business plans, Li said, Volvo will strengthen its presence in Europe and North America while also taking advantage of growth opportunities in China.

Geely has also announced the appointment of six members to the Volvo board, including Stefan Jacoby, President and Chief Executive of the new Volvo Car Corporation.

Li Shufu has been appointed chairman of the new board and Hans-Olov Olsson has been appointed vice chairman.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile rose 1.38 percent to 2.94 HK dollars (38 U.S. cents) Monday morning.

Dong Yang, Executive Vice President of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said Geely’s successful takeover of Volvo is “just the company’s first step in expanding.”

Keeping Volvo’s high-end brand value and product quality will be a difficult task, Dong said, adding that raising Volvo’s market share in China and adapting the European brand to China will not be easy, either.

“All of these things should be realized step by step through hard work,” he added.

From: ChinaDaily, 300710. BEIJING – Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co is expected to complete it takeover of Swedish luxury car brand Volvo from US automaker Ford Motor Co on Monday after getting government approval for the deal.

Ministry of Commerce officials told China Daily on Thursday that the government cleared the Volvo deal on Monday 26, after the National Development and Reform Commission cleared the proposal last week.

Geely has also got the necessary anti-trust approvals from the European Union and the US government for the deal. “With this the decks are now clear for Geely to complete its acquisition of Volvo and start manufacturing the brand in China,” said Wang Zhile, director of the research center on transnational corporations under the Ministry of Commerce.

Yuan Xiaolin, Geely’s spokesman for the Volvo deal was unavailable on Thursday for comment. However, unnamed sources from Geely told China Daily that the Zhejiang-based automaker will hold a formal function on Monday to complete the deal.

Geely’s shares surged nearly 11.32 percent and closed at HK$2.95 per share in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Privately owned Geely paid $1.8 billion to acquire the Volvo car brand from Ford on March 28 this year. It was the biggest overseas deal made by Chinese automakers in recent times.

Geely Chairman Li Shufu had at that time indicated that the company would invest $900 million as operating capital in Volvo apart from the $1.8 billion purchase price.

Geely said on July 15 that it had appointed Li as the chairman of the board at Volvo Car Corp. At the same time it appointed the former president and CEO of Volvo Hans-Olov Olsson as the vice-chairman.

More appointments to the board and top management, including the chief executive and chief financial officer, may be made next week, said sources.

Analysts said the Volvo buy will help Geely gain a competitive edge in China and also a major toehold in Europe.

Pursuant to completion of the deal, Geely is likely to start making Volvo cars locally.

Though it has not announced a location yet, indications are that it may consider Jiading in Shanghai, Chengdu in Sichuan, Beijing or Tianjin as possible production sites.

During the firsts six months of the year, Volvo sold 15,497 cars in China, up 88 percent over last year.

That compares to the Swedish luxury brand’s 5.2 percent and 9 percent year-on-year decline in major markets like the United States and Germany.

Geely plans to increase Volvo’s annual sales in China to 150,000 units by 2015, said sources.

“Maybach is an important part of Daimler’s product portfolio. There is no other decision”, so a Benz spokesman said to Reuters.

“It’s not true, it’s market speculation. We got calls from the media and we have checked with Chairman Wang”, so a BYD spokesman said  to Reuters. Chairman Wang is Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s boss.

Rumors on a possible buy by BYD of Benzes Maybach brand surfaced earlier this week in the Chinese media and were taken to the outside world by websites as this one.

Can’t say we’re surprised, but an electric MayBYDbach would have been… well… yep!

According to a report on one of China’s largest automotive websites, auto.sina.com, BYD has expressed interest to acquire the Maybach-brand from Mercedes Benz as the Germans will pull the plug in one or two years.

An unmaned BYD official told Sina.com that BYD was very interested in Maybach and would “launch the acquisition” as soon as Benz makes the final decision to quit.

Earlier this month MB and BYD announced a partnership to produce electric vehicles for the Chinese market, so the two are friends already. Still I don’t think Benz will ever consider to sell the Maybach-brand to anyone, let alone to a batterymaker turned carmaker from China.

Hard to say how serious BYD really is, but it is good to see the brand keeps dreaming…

“I see Volvo as a tiger: it belongs to the forest and shouldn’t be contained in the zoo. The heart of the tiger is in Sweden and Belgium,” he said, referring to the two countries where Volvo has its main plants. “Its paws should extend all across the world.”

Said Geely Chairman Mr. Li Shufu, a new Chinese hero who finally got his Volvo. For only 1.8 billion dollars Geely buys one of the most famous automotive brands in the world. Ford on the other hand sold it’s last possibility to compete with Benz and BMW, it won’t work with Lincoln, never.

Some of the latest news on the deal from China Daily: Geely is planning a new Volvo factory in Beijing with an annual capacity of 300.000 cars. Volvo made 330.000 cars in 2009. Chinese ‘experts’ have high hopes on Volvo’s technologies: “Li Shufu has a very strategic target that can be boosted by Volvo’s green technologies.” Volvo is not considered very green in the west but compared with many a Chinese car it is as green as grass.

More importantly, Geely gets all Volvo’s safety knowledge in house which it will use to improve the much critisized safetly of it’s own cars. It is so far unclear what will happen to the Volvo factory in Chongqing, a joint venture with Chang’an Auto that makes the S40 and S80. Earlier rumors said the factory would continue but that is likely only until Geely starts up the new one in Beijing.

Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Li Shufu and Ford’s Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth after signing the agreement on Sunday.