Geely Li Shufu buys Volvo

20 18, the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up, selected 100 reform pioneers.

But in this list of 100 people, I found a representative in the automobile field-Li Shufu, the helm of Geely Automobile. This is better, the only one. Having said that, I have to say one thing that everyone knows-yes, the acquisition of Volvo.

The story happened on 20 10. At that time, Geely claimed to marry Princess Volvo, but at that time, Geely was in the eyes of most people.

In fact, as early as 2002 when Geely got the automobile production license, Li Shufu put forward this groundbreaking idea. "We are going to buy Volvo, so we should prepare from now on." It was 2002, and Geely didn't even know the cheapest car. At that time, everyone at the meeting was shocked. The reason given by Li Shufu is that "the purpose of Ford's acquisition of Volvo has been achieved, and the future Volvo will be reluctantly given up by Ford."

This seemingly linguistic judgment was basically fulfilled in early 2007, but the first biggest problem was not the factors such as funds and factories, but that Ford didn't know who Geely was at that time. We don't know each other, and we can't even talk.

So Li Shufu used a simple and effective method at that time and met.

Li Shufu took part in whatever Ford took part in, for no other reason than to get acquainted. Until the 2008 Telford Auto Show, Li Shufu finally met dawn Reckler, the chief financial officer of Ford Motor Company. It took him 30 minutes to finally express his willingness to buy Volvo. Ford was busy selling Jaguar Land Rover at that time, and probably didn't intend to sell Volvo. On the other hand, it is "who? Is it? What about you? Why should I sell it to you? "

But at least Ford has an impression of Geely and Li Shufu. Of course, we will not speculate whether this impression is good or bad.

In addition to Li Shufu, at that time, state-owned automobile manufacturers were also interested in acquiring Volvo, such as Changan Automobile, which had established a joint venture with Volvo, but that was in 2008. What's in 2008? -This is not the Olympics. Geely's acquisition of Volvo has an important condition-timing and financial crisis. In the face of the situation at that time, no state-owned enterprise was willing to stand up, so the country naturally allowed Li Shufu's application, and Li Shufu finally got the "customs clearance documents" for the acquisition of Volvo.

With the help of the financial crisis, American car sales have been falling all the way. On June 65438+February 1 this year, Ford Motor Company made it clear that it was "seriously considering selling Volvo".

Finally, on June 5438+ 10, 2009, Bill Ford and alan mulally met Li Shufu at Ford headquarters. Li Shufu described his pursuit of Volvo for many years and his long-term planning for Volvo, which was finally recognized by Bill Ford and alan mulally.

Next, I won't go into details about bidding, project inspection and negotiation. Time came on September 30, 2009, and Ford Motor Company publicly announced that Geely had become the preferred bidder for Volvo. A staged victory is equivalent to an engagement.

Married brothers and sisters should know that they should talk about dowry after engagement. Geely's most wanted dowry is obvious, and that is the core intellectual property that Ford doesn't want to give. It is said that regarding the transfer of core intellectual property rights, Ford and Geely once started a cold war and even faced collapse.

Regarding Volvo's core intellectual property rights, Ford insisted that Qingshan would not relax and would not give it. Geely will win and send a team of experts who are good at negotiation to negotiate with Ford.

At that time, Li Shufu had a request to the team sent to negotiate with Volvo: no time difference, no concept of time, and calling or texting if something happened. It is said that Li Shufu quietly rushed to London, England to cheer everyone up when the deadlock in the negotiations was coming to an end. Li Shufu in this period is described as an energetic person, a person who is willing to adopt all kinds of opinions, an extremely intelligent person who dares to make decisions.

On February 23, 65438, the day before Christmas, Geely and Ford announced at the same time that they had reached an agreement on the main commercial terms of the acquisition of Volvo. At the end of the acquisition of Volvo, Li Shufu turned "one person" business into "400 people" business, including investment bank, law firm and financial public relations. There are 400 people serving M&A transactions. This has become one of the most complicated M&A transactions in the history of China.

Well, the main commercial terms have been agreed. The last question is money. How much dowry do you give?

About money, it is nothing more than how much to buy and sell. Where does Geely's money come from? You know, at that time, it was still in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and Geely could not get the money for the acquisition, and it was difficult to borrow money from financial institutions. It is said that Li Shufu only borrowed $200 million from Zhejiang Branch of China Construction Bank at that time, which was undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the acquisition of Volvo.

How did the funds for the acquisition come from the local government financing platform? When the Beijing government, which initially reached a cooperation agreement, wanted to come up with real money, the situation changed and the money was not given. This made Li Shufu unprepared. At this time, the negotiations between Geely and Ford entered a new stage. Geely needs to clarify the financing structure before signing the contract. At this stage, the Chengdu municipal government contacted Li Shufu and showed great interest in the Volvo project.

As a result, Geely borrowed from a number of state-owned institutions in the form of one-year loans, with the Chengdu municipal government as a guarantee and Li Shufu himself as a lifelong counter-guarantee, and successfully raised 3 billion yuan from Chengdu.

Anyway, there is money. It should be10 billion or so. How much did Geely spend on Volvo? After many negotiations, Li Shufu finally offered $654.38+0.8 billion, which was more than 80% lower than the previous forecast of $/kloc-0.00 billion. Due to the huge change in the transaction amount, Ford said that it needs to be decided by the board meeting, so the negotiation of purchasing Volvo was interrupted for one month.

In mid-2009, they came to the China Federation of Trade Unions, hoping that the China Trade Union would come forward to stop Geely from buying Volvo cars. To this end, Li Shufu took his team to Sweden and Belgium and visited all trade union leaders and relevant government departments. After unremitting efforts, finally on March 27th, 20 10, the Geely Volvo project team reached a final agreement with the trade union. The day after the agreement was reached, Geely's agreement to buy Volvo was signed in London. There were half a meter-high papers piled up on the desk, and they were signed one by one for more than half an hour. After that, Li Shufu lay motionless on the table. Others thought he was too tired to rest, but in fact he cried.

20 10 On August 2nd, London, England, Geely successfully delivered 0/00% equity of Volvo Car/kloc-0 and related assets, including the aforementioned intellectual property rights, and became the first automobile multinational company in China. This means that Geely has the trademark ownership and use right of Volvo cars, 10963 patents and special intellectual property rights, 10 series of sustainable products and product platforms, the production capacity and good facilities of about 560,000 cars in two major automobile plants,/kloc-0 engine company and three parts companies, an independent database for the development of complete vehicles and key parts, and a research and development system for 3,800 high-quality scientific research talents. These contents have played a great role in the future development of Geely.

Li Shufu set up the "V Project" team in June 2007, and officially completed the delivery in August 20 10. It took three years to become the new boss of Volvo. In an interview with Reuters on the same day, Li Shufu expressed his feelings like this: "We have realized the dream of acquiring Volvo, but this is not our final plan, it is just a new starting point." Indeed, for Geely, the acquisition of Volvo has embarked on a road of rapid development, and Geely is inseparable from the acquisition of Volvo today.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.