Discussion continued from the ”Model S Wagon?” thread here:
Model S Wagon? - Page 8
The complete quote:
…and my argument for argument answer:
According to this article in the Swedish newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet" (The Swedish Daily Paper(?):wink
that is a false statement:
I industriklenodens innersta maktrum | SvD
The ownerhip structure behind Volvo Cars (not to be mixed up with Volvo Group (Trucks, Buses, Construction Equipment et. al.)) was apparently secret until the the EIB (the European Investment Bank) demanded to be presented with this ownership structure since they were about to grant Volvo Cars a considerable loan. According to this article (and using the EIB as the source) the owners are:
Geely Holding Group owned by Li Shufu: 51%
The Daqing investementfund: 37% (This is one branch of the Chinese 'gov.')
An industrial area outside Shanghai: 12% (This is another branch of the Chinese 'gov.')
So it might seem that Geely Holding Group holds a miniscule majority post.
However, out of the little more than 6 billion SEK (Swedish currency) Geely Holding Group paid Ford for this 51% share, ‘only’ 1,5 billion SEK of this money actually came from Geely Holiding Group. 1,5 billion SEK at a 10-15% interest rate came from Ford through some kind of sellers promissory note (if that’s the correct English term…)
AND, the remaining 3 billion SEK Geely/Li Shufu had to borrow through banks owned by the Chinese government. The loan from Ford has since been repaid by more loans through banks owned by the Chinese government. Hence: Volvo Cars is currently, as I understand it, in reality in fact owned by the very, very undemocratic Chinese dictatorial ‘government’.
And to make things even worse, according to another article in the same paper:
Halva Geelys vinst kommer från bidrag | SvD
…which in turn references an article in the Economist about a study by a company called Fathom China, 51% of Geely Automobiles profit in 2011 was apparently an allowance from the Chinese ‘government’…
Assuming you’re right about your claim about the Swedish government, which I can’t really comment on, I would still fail to see the problem in these two scenarios. Both the Swedish and the French governments are put in place through democratic elections, and neither commits human right’s abuses on a massive scale. Sure, the French government probably would have favoured the French Automotive industry just like one might argue that Ford favoured their American brands over Volvo, and GM favoured their American brands, Holden and Opel over SAAB. But, as you also write, the deal with Renault that fell trough was a few years ago. In fact, correct me if I’m wrong, but as I recall, it even happened before Ford bought Volvo Cars. So that’s quite some time ago… And also, the favouring problem might also still persist with the Chinese government as the de facto owner… It’s probably even rather likely…
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And also: I’m guessing that if Li Shufu for some reason makes a sufficiently large mistake in the eyes of the powers that be, then that could quite possibly mean the last sunlight he’ll see for a very long time. …Or, even the last sunlight he ever saw…
