Before he bought into Daimler, Zhejiang Geely Holding (ZGH) chairman and founder Li Shufu was reportedly looking at cooperating with BMW, according to a Spiegel report. The potential partnership with the Munich automaker was explored sometime in 2016, but would not have involved any share purchases.
The German news website said that Li promised that he could give BMW better inroads to the Chinese market and establish contact with high-ranking political decision-makers in return for access to the German carmaker’s electric tech.
As it turned out, no deal was struck with Geely, and BMW didn’t give any indication as to why it didn’t pan out. It has since announced that it will be cooperating with another Chinese carmaker, Great Wall, to produce electric vehicles in China, particulary on the MINI front.
The report added that Li has been striving to develop the closest possible partnerships with well-known Western automakers to secure more technical know-how and establish cost savings in production in a bid to open up markets for his brand outside of China.
Last month, it was announced that Li had purchased a 9.69% stake in Daimler worth 7.3 billion euros (RM35 billion), making him its largest shareholder, ahead of the Kuwait Investment Authority (6.8%), BlackRock (5.95%) and the 3.1% held by the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
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Bmw have the guts, but Chinese is the future
You are right. We need more MAinland people into Malaysia to guide our country to better heights.
You are right. But 1st settle water issue is critical.
This is a car blog. Got nothing to do with water
Punch Powertrain also China punya
Geely should buy VW Group instead. Porsche, Lambo, Audi brands all under the group & VW got huge footprints in China. Summore P1 Tanjung malim plant can ckd Audi & Vw.
VW and BMW are fanily owned companies with state holdings. Impossible to buy without family and state consent. Daimler is much easier. Which is why Geely bought shares in it.
Geely too, dun wan Dieselgate & DSGgate.
There are no such thing as emotional purchase in the car industry. VW has the biggest sales volume among any car producer in China, Chinese makers included. For sure Geely would want to buy a stake in the biggest car company if it had a choice. Unfortunately VW stake is not for sale, so Geely doesnt buy. Simple as that.
Bodoh. already got big foot print in china then why would VAG need geely?
Geely, Mercedes > all
Interestingly Daimler has announced that whatever stake Geely takes in it will not give Geely access to technical know how that can jeorpardise its existing cooperation with BAIC and BYD.
As Geely is a competitor to BAIC and BYD, the two parties are unlikely to allow Geely to benefit from its minority shareholding of slightly more than 9% in Daimler.
What this means is the eventual winner from all these would be Daimler with its US$2 billion arrangement with BAIC to expand car manufacturing in China with probably the largest facility in China, as well as its battery electric partnership with world leader, BYD.
So looks like the additional money that Daimler inherited from Geely would only add to its positive earnings. Which is why even the European Competitions Commission and the German government did not object to the stake purchase by Geely, although they opposed other Chinese investments in Europe.
Basically anything above 10% stakeholding in European companies will trigger a warning at the European Competitions Commission. So realistically Geely can only own the shares it has currently and nothing more. Anything more will go through the European commission
ha ha ha. poor tokmoh and john. They thought Proton gonna get Merc technology
This is just a personal investment by Li.
Geely will not be able to gain anything from Daimler cos this stake does not come with a boardroom representation.
wonder why geely is so stupid to spend billions when they dont even get to influence mercedes strategy, nor access to their tech.
Geely, Daimler and BMW are all great companies. Their collaboration are just perfect!!!