Monday, October 2, 2017

GEELY AUTO GROUP PURCHASES LOTUS







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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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BRUCE HUBBARD
BRADLEY HUBBARD
BONNIE LYNCH
AUTO ADVISOR GROUP

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