There have been reports about Geely wanting to purchase a stake in Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz trucks and cars. Now, a report by Reuters says that the deed has already been done, as the Chinese carmaker seeks to strike an alliance with the German company over electric vehicle technology.
Word was that Geely was looking at a relatively large stake in Daimler, which is single digits in a company where the biggest single shareholder owns only 6%. Although the report says that the size of the stake is unclear, it is likely to be below 3%, as any purchase above that threshold would require Geely to make a regulatory disclosure in Germany.
It is unclear if Geely, the owner of Volvo and foreign partner of Proton, had sought to buy more Daimler shares. Should the stake be below 3%, it would put Geely’s holding below that of BlackRock’s 5.95%, Kuwait Investment Authority’s 5.33% and the 3.1% held by the Renault-Nissan Alliance, according to German regulator BaFin.
Geely most likely mopped up the shares from the open market. In November 2017, it was reported that Daimler had turned down an offer from Geely to take a stake of up to 5% via a discounted share placement. The German carmaker declined to issue new shares because it did not want to see existing stocks diluted, sources said.
“Geely has opted mainly to show their seriousness and to impress on Daimler folks that they are not going away,” the report’s unnamed source said. Geely has declined comment.
Earlier this week, Daimler reiterated it would welcome interest from long-term shareholders, adding that any significant changes to its shareholder structure would be published on its website. CEO Dieter Zetsche said on Tuesday that he had no information about Geely’s purchases of Daimler shares. “I haven’t seen the chairman of Geely at least for a year,” Zetsche told Reuters.
Insiders believe that this is all to do with electric vehicle technology, in view of China’s tough new quotas aimed at reducing pollution and lowering the country’s reliance on oil. Sources say that Geely wants to access Daimler’s EV battery technology and wants to start an EV joint venture in Wuhan.
Daimler has existing Chinese partners – ties include a venture with BYD, China’s leading EV maker, and state-owned BAIC. The latter has announced that it will stop the production and sales of vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2025, going full electric.
Daimler execs have gone on record to say that they see no need to take on another industrial partner in China because there is significant capacity for expansion in the BAIC JV.
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Proton and Geely fanboys all syiok sendiri. They think Mercedes going to give AMG technology to Proton cars.
Come on, get real. Shareholding is shareholding. It is like you, if you buy TNB shares, it does not mean Tenaga Nasional is going to give you purer electric or cheaper electric.
You are just a shareholder. Fullstop.
But Proton fanboys here all thing their Saga is going to be given with AMG technology and be called Saga E63 or Saga E45.
Geely syiok sendiri paying millions to daimler for shares. Daimler has already two JV in china.
Proton will soon take over the world. Mercedes will be 100% Proton’s property.
Bertuah kami miliki Proton….oh wai!
This is what you call syok sendiri. Same type of people who also say
1) Our local Universities are at par with Oxford University of the UK
2) Our Proton is higher quality than BMW and Volvo
How can Proton own Mercedes? Market said Geely only bought 3% of Mercedes.
You also not the owner of the Daimler why so concerned about Geely becoming part of the organisation.
Anyway as we know , Mercedes are quite good at making Taxi status car and Geely owned London Black Cab .
So the exchange of good idea between them in making a good London Cab/ Taxi is most fruitful as we see it.
Others view it as EV technologies but we see it as Taxi schemes.
Jees! Geely can’t come up with their own thing but they buy company and get the tech from the better company they bought…
Watda big fuss?? Proton orso bought MV Augusta, summore 100%. Pfffftt
Almost all companies do that nowadays lah. Its called ‘Acquisition’. So why Geely must be diff?
got money only. No knowledge. Just like Proton….ooooops Proton got not both even
Nope. With the change of ownership, now P1 got BOTH money & access to knowledge. oh wai…
Do dream on that China Mainland people are going to give you free money.
Geely only paid RM170 million for Proton. Geely made USD30 billion (RM120 billion) in profits last year.
The RM170 million they invested is kacang puteh. They won’t fork out more money as they already got Lotus
Then, you need to ask that question to almost all other carmakers. Ask giant like Toyota why it bought Aisin, Daihatsu, Yamaha and Hino. Toyota will answer you ‘Duhh! Because that is the fastest way to acquire techs that we need, silly.’
Correct. Exactly like how P1 has benefited from LOTUS ride and handling.
LOL, that’s how things work in case you have no idea. Take Toyota, for example. Toyota has shares in or bought outright the following companies for technologies it needed: Aisin-transmission, Daihatsu-kei car, Hino-heavy machinery, Yamaha-engine techs (yes, Toyota’s famed VVT-i was developed by Yamaha), Tesla-EV techs and so on.
Ignore the cavemen basher. He dun realise how the world works just by peering out from his cave. Let him be.