THE MUNSTA BOARD

[SPARK]

GELYF - Ford Said to Narrow Volvo Sale Talks to China’s Geely

By Keith Naughton and Cathy Chan

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. narrowed talks on the sale of its Volvo Car unit to one bidder, China’s Geely Holding Group Co., according to two people familiar with the matter.

The negotiations with Geely are progressing, said the people, who asked not to be identified before an announcement is made later today. Ford hasn’t resolved concerns about protecting intellectual property, one of the people said.

Talks involving Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth in London last week yielded significant progress in reaching a deal to sell the Swedish unit, the people said. Dearborn, Michigan- based Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, is shedding its international luxury lines to focus on its namesake brand as Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally aims to return the company to profitability by 2011.

“Volvo is completely integrated into Ford’s product development strategy,” Michael Robinet, a CSM Worldwide analyst in Northville, Michigan, said Oct. 20. “This is akin to selling a room on your house. You can’t separate it easily.”

Ford spokesman Mark Truby declined to comment. Lawrence Ang, an executive director at Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., Geely’s Hong Kong-listed unit, didn’t answer a call to his mobile phone.

Geely, China’s largest private automaker, is prepared to pay about $2 billion for Volvo, less than a third of what Ford paid a decade ago, people familiar with the talks have said.

Jaguar, Land Rover

Ford put Volvo on the block in December. It sold the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in the U.K. to India’s Tata Motors Ltd. last year for $2.4 billion.

Geely first approached Ford about buying Volvo in the summer of 2008, people familiar with the matter had said, and the Chinese company emerged as the frontrunner. Ford also talked to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. and the Crown Group, led by former Ford director Michael Dingman, son James Dingman and Shamel Rushwin, a former manufacturing and labor executive at the automaker, the people had said.

Ford had considered keeping the Swedish unit, whose losses are narrowing and sales are improving, people familiar with the situation had said. With Volvo’s prospects improving, Ford thought it may get a better bid for the luxury line when the economy improves, the people said.

Any buyer would gain insight into Ford’s future products, which will still share Volvo technology and mechanical vehicle designs, the people said. Ford will continue to provide engines and other major components to Volvo after it’s sold, which is why the intellectual property issues need to be resolved.

Konsortium Jakob

Volvo’s U.S. sales rose 16 percent in September, bucking the 23 percent drop in the auto market. Year-to-date sales fell 22 percent through last month, compared with an industrywide decline of 27 percent. Volvo is trimming costs and improving performance after a $231 million second-quarter pretax loss.

Konsortium Jakob AB, the Swedish investor group that also wants to buy Volvo, will not abandon its bid, Jakob founder Magnus Sundemo said today. Sundemo, who is also head of the engineers’ union at Volvo, said that suppliers were concerned that Volvo’s technology may be abused by Geely.

“We’re not giving up,” he said in a phone interview.

To contact the reporters on this story: Keith Naughton in Southfield, Michigan, at [e-mail]; Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at [e-mail]