Volvo is a Swedish premium automotive brand known for its high-quality, safe, and reliable vehicles. Founded in 1927 by Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson, Volvo has earned a reputation for producing vehicles that prioritize safety above all else. Volvo Cars – the company in question – is a division that is now separate from former parent company AB Volvo – a manufacturer of buses, trucks, and construction equipment. With that in mind, let’s discuss who owns Volvo Cars today.
AB Volvo sells Volvo Cars
AB Volvo sold Volvo Cars to Ford in 1999 for $6.45 billion. The deal was part of a wider trend of mergers and acquisitions in an industry with excess factories that could produce 15 million vehicles more than the current demand.
With Volvo under Ford’s stable, the American company established a foothold in the luxury car market, incorporated Volvo parts in Ford models, and leveraged its existing supply chain network to distribute the various models.
Ford sells Volvo
Ford sold Volvo to the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010. The estimated sale price of around $2 billion represented a significant loss considering the $6.45 billion purchase price eleven years earlier.
As part of the deal, Geely secured access to European car-making technologies that were otherwise unobtainable. It was also posited by some commentators that Geely’s brand would be boosted because of Volvo’s premium status in China. What’s more, the purchase positioned the country as an ambitious force in the global industry with a budget to match.
For Ford, the Volvo sale represented the last from the company’s luxury brands division which once housed Land Rover, Jaguar, and Aston Martin. While a loss on paper, the cash would be used to renew the company’s focus on the Ford brand.
Nasdaq Stockholm IPO
Volvo Cars debuted on the Nasdaq Stockholm on October 29, 2021. According to a post announcing the debut, major shareholder Geely was joined by 200,000 others after the IPO attracted interest from investors in Sweden and other Nordic countries.
According to the company’s most recently released data, Geely Group owns 82% of Volvo Cars with foreign ownership accounting for 3.9%. No other company owns more than 10% of the shares in Volvo Cars.
Some of the other major shareholders include:
- AMF Pension & Funds – a Swedish pension fund and one of the largest in the country with a focus on simple and reliable investment solutions.
- Folksam – a Swedish insurance company headquartered in Stockholm with close ties to trade union and cooperative organizations.
- Swedbank Robur Funds – one of Scandinavia’s largest asset managers with a focus on sustainable value creation, and
- Alecta Pension Insurance – another Swedish company that manages the occupational pensions of 2.6 million individuals and 35,000 companies.
Key takeaways:
- Volvo is a Swedish automotive brand known for its high-quality, safe, and reliable vehicles. Founded in 1927 by Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson, Volvo has earned a reputation for producing vehicles that prioritize safety above all else.
- Volvo Cars split from parent company AB Volvo and was then sold to Ford. The American car company later sold Volvo Cars to the Chinese firm Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010.
- Volvo Cars debuted on the Nasdaq Stockholm in 2021 but it is still majority owned by Geely who holds around 82% of all shares.
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