Report: Geely selects banks to advise on Volvo IPO
Volvo could be the next major automaker to go public.
The Swedish automaker's parent company Zhejiang Geely has selected investment banks Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to advise on an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the matter.
Geely is said to be looking at a value of between $16 billion and $30 billion and a dual listing on exchanges in Hong Kong and Sweden as early as this fall.
When contacted by Bloomberg, a spokesperson for Volvo said an IPO was an option but that the decision was entirely up to Geely.
Aston Martin is another major automaker in the headlines recently regarding an IPO. Ferrari was the last major automaker to launch an IPO, with its shares being listed for the first time in 2015 with a price tag of $52, which gave the company a market valuation of $9.8 billion at the time.
Geely has done an impressive job of transforming Volvo since acquiring the brand from Ford in 2010. Volvos today are comparable with Germany's best and the company is also expanding with the Lynk & Co. and Polestar sister brands. Volvo is also in the process of introducing a new generation of compact cars, starting with the impressive XC40, and is a year out from entering the electric car race.
Volvo delivered 572,000 cars in 2017 and has a target of 800,000 cars by 2020. The company also reported a 2017 operating profit of $1.64 billion and is on track to increase this in 2018.
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