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Zhejiang
Geely Holding Group Completes Group Lotus plc Transaction
-
Geely Holding and Etika Automotive Announce Joint Board
- Mr.
Daniel Donghui Li appointed Chairman of Lotus Board
- Mr.
Jean-Marc Gales to continue in his role as CEO
September
29th, Kuala Lumpur. Zhejiang Geely
Holding Group (Geely Holding) today completed the transaction to purchase a
majority stake in the British luxury sports brand Lotus. Geely Holding now owns
a majority stake of 51% in Lotus Advance Technologies Sdn Bhd (Lotus) with a
minority 49% being held by Etika Automotive (Etika), a Malaysian automotive
group.Company Structure
With
the transaction completed, the Board of Directors for Lotus has been formally
established, consisting of five seats of which three are appointed by Geely Holding
and two are appointed by Etika.
Under
this structure, Geely Holding has appointed Geely Holding’s Executive Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Daniel Donghui Li as Chairman of the
Lotus Board. Mr. Feng Qing Feng, Geely Auto Vice President and Chief Technology
Officer and also Mr. Nathan Yu Ning, whom is the Vice President of
International Business and Executive Advisor to the President atGeely Holding
will also join the board.
Etika have appointed Dato’ Sharil
Tarmizi, a corporate consultant and a long term supporter of technology
companies to the Lotus board and will announce a further addition to the board
in due course.
Mr.
Jean-Marc Gales will continue in his role at Lotus as the Chief Executive
Officer since joining the company in 2014.
In
the first half of 2017, Lotus has already entered into a positive cash flow
situation with sales rising by 10% in the first half in year on year
comparison. With the introduction of new models over the course of this year,
including the introduction of the fastest Lotus ever made – the Evora GT430 and
with further expansion into the US and Chinese markets, Geely Holdings are
confident that Lotus will continue to excel.
Mr.
Daniel Donghui Li commented: “With the transaction completion we now look forward
to working with our partners to develop the Lotus brand into a globally
competitive brand and a well recognised leader in the sports car market. We are
extremely confident that Lotus will go above and beyond the expectations of the
automotive industry and consumer base in the near future.”
Mr.
Jean-Marc Gales emphasised Mr. Daniel Donghui Li’s comments by saying:
“Following a successful business turnaround, the Lotus brand has never been in
a stronger position and we are now perfectly positioned for growth. We are
producing the best cars in the company’s history and are currently developing
next generation of sports luxury vehicles which will continue to demonstrate
the Lotus brand values of class-leading vehicle dynamics, light weighting,
styling and aerodynamics by leveraging Geely Holding’s global strengths and
resources.”
A potential boon for Geely
is Proton’s two Malaysian plants which have a combined annual capacity of
350,000 cars. Proton also has a footprint in the growing Southeast Asian market,
though it hasn’t enjoyed much success outside of its home market and even there
sales are declining due to inferior products and poor after-sales service.
In addition, Geely would be
able to employ the talents of the Lotus Engineering consultancy for future
products.
The deal would also be a
boon for Lotus. Given Geely’s successful hands-off approach with Volvo, this
could be a major turning point for Lotus which for decades has suffered from a
shortage of development funds. Already on the drawing board is an SUV as well
as long-overdue, U.S.-legal replacements for the Elise and Exige sports cars.
“Geely Holding is full of
confidence for the future of Proton, we will fully respect the brand’s history
and culture to restore Proton to its former glory with the support of Geely’s
innovative technology and management resources,” Geely CFO Daniel Donghui Li
said in a statement. “We also aim to unleash the full potential of Lotus Cars
and bring it into a new phase of development, thanks to our experience
accumulated through Volvo Cars’ revitalization.”
About
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group:
Zhejiang
Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) is a global automotive group that owns
several well-known international automotive brands, with operations spanning
the automotive value chain, from
research, development and design to production, sales and servicing.
Founded
in 1986 by Li Shufu, the company’s Chairman, in the city of Taizhou in China’s
Zhejiang province, Geely Holding launched its automotive business in 1997 and
is now headquartered in Hangzhou, China. The Group comprises three businesses:
Geely Auto Group, Volvo Car Group and Geely Commercial Vehicles Company. Its
brands include Geely Auto, LYNK & CO, Volvo Car,Polestar, the London Taxi
Company, Yuan Cheng Auto, PROTON (49.9%), and Lotus Group (51%).Geely Holding
sold a combined 1.3 million
vehicles in 2016, with Volvo Car sales reaching historic highs of 534,332 cars
globally and Geely Auto Group sales growing over 50% to reach 765,851 units in
total, exceeding the group’s targets. In the first eight months of 2017, Geely
Auto Group sold a combined 718236 units, an increase of 88% over the same
period in 2016 and
completing
65% of the groups revised 2017 sales goal of 1.1 million units.
ZGH
has over 60,000 employees across the world, and has been listed in the Fortune
500 for the past six years. For more information regarding Zhejiang Geely
Holdings please refer to the
official website at www.geelyholding.com
About
Lotus
Group
Lotus plc is
based in Norfolk, UK.
Lotus
Cars builds
world class, high performance sports cars including the Evora, Elise, Exige and
3-Eleven ranges of sports cars.
Lotus
Engineering provides
comprehensive and versatile consultancy services to many of
the
world's OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and is an internationally recognised
automotive
engineering
consultancy.
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