Daimler AG has announced that Li Shufu, chairman and founder of Zhejiang Geely Holding (ZGH), is now its largest shareholder with a stake of 9.69%. This places Li ahead of the Kuwait Investment Authority (6.8%), BlackRock (5.95%) and the 3.1% held by the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
According to Bloomberg, the stake is worth about 7.3 billion euros (about RM35 billion), making it the biggest investment by a Chinese company in an overseas automaker. With the deal now made official, months of “will they, won’t they” speculations have now been put to a rest.
“Daimler is an outstanding company with a first-class management. It will be an honour to support this unique team under the leadership of Dieter Zetsche in the future. I am particularly pleased to accompany Daimler on its way to becoming the world’s leading electro-mobility provider,” said Li.
While both companies aren’t discussing what their future plans are yet, the partnership will likely involved technology sharing, with Geely keen on accessing Daimler’s electric vehicle and autonomous driving technology.
“Competitors that are (not) challenging the global car industry in the 21st century technologically are not part of the automotive industry today. In order to succeed and seize the technology highland, one has to have friends, partners, and alliances and adapt a new way of thinking in terms of sharing and united strength,” Li said in a statement.
How the deal will affect Daimler’s partnership with BAIC and BYD – both Geely’s competitors – remains to be seen. Daimler recently announced plans to manufacture electric vehicles through a joint venture with BAIC, with both companies looking to invest more than 11.9 billion yuan (more than RM7 billion) to build a new factory in China.
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China Dragons conquering the auto world!!! Gongxi gongxi!
In 2025 all proton new cars will get Lotus handling, high tech of a mercedez Benz, safety levels of a Volvo and resale value of a Geely.
How’s that?
with the ruthless might of Geely biz power, the fate of complacent local P1 vendors as good as gone.
Amazing. Rm35 billion for 9% stake. Our Proton, 49% is only worth RM170 million.
Half the company only worth RM170 million despite we spending over RM20 billion into the company.
And we lost Lotus completely
Proton A160, C160 & E160 bila ada?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
All the haters, how you feel now? I’ve long seen that Geely is destined for greatness and this is fantastic news! You all call john fake news, who’s the joke now?
All hail Geely!
Geely, Mercedes, Volvo, Bao Teng > all
Fist bump bro! Now China comes savings Germany!
Fist bump! What a day, what a lovely day!
Yet some claim Proton is too big to fail. Lmao
Volvo sold 69 units only in jan. Need to work so much harder to beat Vw.
P1 change & choose Chinese ownership. Supporters & neutrals rejoicing to Change! Happy Chinese new yr!!
John. Germany has got trade surplus with alsmost every country in the world, including the US, UK and Japan. They are definitely cash rich also.
To give some clarity, Germany and China has long had economic pacts since the 1980s. They both complement each other and not compete. Thats the reason Germany sold the Maglev train technology in the early 2000s to China for the Shanghai-Pudong train line and China in turn provided Germany with the battery electric technology for the German car industry that could not produce it in a cost effective manner.
Actually they are the best of allies and friends prior to the cold war and ongoing until today.
So for DRB p1, its shape up or ship out… Geely wont blink an eye to writeoff their tiny outlay and send P1 back to their nanny, Drb. Cuz Geely oredi gotten Lotus
Remember, Volvo only sold 69 units in Malaysia last month. So, pls dont syiok sendiri that 9% stake will boost Proton and Volvo sales.
Hahaha! Such myopic view of the market. Volvo Cars main volume is for outside of MY. Majority of sales is around ASEAN region not focus in MY. And thats what P1 will be instead of crowing as jaguh kampung like P2.
Volvo only selling 69 units last month?. This is less than 1% of honda monthly sales. I would though that Geely would at least put a bit of parallel effort into Volvo Malaysia to push up Volvo sales number and push down spare parts cost as a way to reduce total ownership cost. Volvo better hurry up and not be left out as Naza had being taken over by Peugout. So 408, 308, 508 and their variants should be seeing much stronger sales within 1 year.
See all expensive car like Audi and lexus ( premium sector ) only sold 15 and 20 units respectively in Jan 2018.
The price of each Audi can buy you three Hondas same goes with lexus and volvo .
So why not you compare Honda sales with that of Audi and lexus too .
Only stupid people will compare Honda car ( Non Premium and cheaper brand ) with Premium and expensive brands like Audi, volvo and lexus ( All three are niche players)
Why Not compare honda sales with Perodua ?
Perodua sales is many times better than Honda even Honda is struggling to beat Perodua sales year after years without any signs of winning yet..
john, China alone contribute to high percentage of volvo sales. other countries – not so much.
We also remember under DRB
Audi managed to sell only 15 units .
While Lexus not under DRB just managed to sell 20 units .
So Volvo sales in Jan 2018 is not that bad in view of the their price range .
Vw is a cheaper price brand whereby any Tom, Dick and Harry can afford to buy while these costlier three premium brands cost more than a new VW price ( 3 to 4 folds) to be able to afford to buy.
If VW is not selling more than 3 to 4 folds volume than the those three something is very wrong with VW cars in the making,
Best of all Geely also got a hold on Proton and Ah Jib said Proton not allow to fail.
Mind boggling 9.69% oredy Daimler RM35 BILLION. Proton 49.9% stake, rm170j murah gilerr oii.
Why not? P1 keta RM37k, Mesidis keta RM500k
True that. Pipu buy P1 cuz its cheap
And its oso gud & safer. Therefore much value for money.
Lu mau beli wa punya kereta ka??? lagi manyak mulah…
Half of Proton only worth RM170 juta? that is USD40 million.
Geely made USD30 billion in profits last year. That is RM120 billion
Omar Merican – Where did you get the figure of USD 30 billion? If your figure is accurate, it will make Geely bigger than Toyota and VW combined. Here’s ths real figures from Reuters news agency:
“Geely Automobile Holdings (0175) yesterday reported a doubled net profit for 2017.
Geely is expected to record a net profit of 10.2 billion yuan, compared with 5.11 billion yuan for the year ended December 2016.
The 100-percent growth in net profit was a result of the significant increase in overall sales volume and the improvement in product mix, the carmaker said.”
Resistance is futile!
Dr Li Chunrong made Msia p1 great again!!
To all haters. HAHAHAHA!
Their salty tears, feels good man!
Now all Mercedes owners, for every ringgit they paid, 9.69sen goes to Geely, may go to Proton.
So how, wanna boycott Mercedes? No way, badge snobs love them, every year pecah sales record!! Thank you for contributing to the might of Geely Empire!!!
MY pipu buy P1 = buy mesidis… Reason to be more patriotic again. Heheh
By your logic, buying a 70k VW polo = buying a lambo huracan.
Time for Empire to strike back.
“200,000 units by 2020 and 300,000 units by 2023 before arriving at the 400k mark in 2027.”
– Dr Li Chunrong, PHD holder.
Rebadged china SUV to feed A, B & C segmen.
Do dream on. Do dream on. Once Li sees the work ethics of Proton, he might even rescind the deal
He’s the boss with 49.9% stake. This isn’t like MAS and ang moh CEO, they have nothing.
He tak suka, you keluar!
Hahaha. Jelly much? How long has he alredi been here and still din say anything?
https://paultan.org/2017/09/29/drb-hicom-geely-announce-new-proton-board-li-chunrong-is-ceo-winfried-vahland-joins-board/
The guys is PHD holder. U think few months after, he still blur sotong like haters?
U mean.
https://paultan.org/2017/03/02/proton-a-failed-white-elephant-project-nazri-aziz/
I doubt that Geely is allow to get any Merdeces Benz technology even he is the larges share holder. This is purely an investment
As an investment, it’s a Smart move (see what I did there?) Daimler’s net profit was almost 11 billion euros in 2017 and forecasted to grow for the foreseeable future.
$35B for Daimler’s electric driving tech. when Geely owned P1 alredi hv ready EV iriz tech..
Iriz EV tech only goes to 300km range. They want more deswai they want to buy Mesidis.
Sour grape comment.
Well they surely have a voice in BOD Of some sort.
Good that Geely gets a stake in Daimler. Its a win win situation for both parties as China is Daimler’s biggest market worldwide and Daimler is the world’s top luxury and technology car company.
Wow, this is the most expensive price ever paid for just a 9.69% stake. I believe Geely paid less to acquire the entire Volvo car company?
for sure.. when he bought volvo, they weren’t exactly in great health.. but mercedes is currently booming.
Proton brand be same level as Lada Motors.
U mean like both were affordable to masses, simple to use and fix, reliable like a tank, and long lasting with minimal servis like AK? Okayyss…
Volvo was in the state of closing down, similar to Saab. If Geely didn’t come in to rescue, Volvo name is in the history books already.
Not really. Volvo name cud have lived on with Volvo Lastvagnar.
Next will be bmw, Ferrari, and vw …
Next will be Tesla when it finally runs out of money!
too bad, he has ran out of money…
Tesla next! Just wait for them to implode, then heck, maybe can buy for only USD1 huehuehue.
Reminded of Proton biggest kemaluan – jual MV Augusta USD1 huehuehuk. Sorii…
RE: Reminded that Harley oso jual MV for 1Euro as well and AMG jual MV at a loss. huehuehuk. Sorii…
BMW and VW family owned. So very hard for China to buy. Ferrari is Fiat owned. Possible as Fiat is losing money bailing out Chrysler
FCA chairman Sergio Marchionne actually tried to sell part of Chrysler to Geely last year, apparently the Chinese politely declined.
Mainland Chinese knows which brand can still be rescued and which brand is terminally in coma.
Yup. BMW is Quandt family majority owned while VW is majority owned by Piech/Porsche families.
This is a very Good move by both Daimler and Geely!!!
A Malaysian journey to own a Merc.
1st car Proton > Geely > Volvo > Merc.
he is rich….
Google Daimler AG to know how big it really is. In 2017, the group’s net profit was 10.9 billion euros from revenue of 164 billion euros. Daimler is actually more profitable than the Volkswagen Group.
If not of geely i woulf already klosshop. P1 sales is important to my busineess. I only choose P1. P1 is the bestest
You don’t know what is the background of “Comfort Li”, check and you will surprise.
Some people say buy Volvo is like buy China car. Now What? haha..
Hahaha! Later they claim China no longer buys Mesidis cuz its like buying China cars now. Lolz!
Pirelli tyre also China punya
Saxo bank, 51.5% also Geely punya “StarCraft: Show Me The Money”
Those clowns at proton are so pathetic. The company was so bad that it got sold to a bigger company. Now the bigger company acquiring some shares of Merc but proton clowns sorak satu kampung tumpang kejayaan.
They have to remember, proton was bought because the company was ailing and need rescue not because they are good.
Hahaha! While P1 is looking to going global with Geel as partner, ur P2 still crowing as jaguh kampung. Well ,fear the return of P1. The Empire will strike back with Boyue first.