Geely Reportedly Bought Shares In Daimler In A Bid For Alliance

Geely’s interest in partnering with Daimler has lead them to reportedly buy existing shares of the company.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reports that the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group decided to build a stake of existing shares in Daimler in order to show them their genuine interest in forming an alliance over EV technologies.

The size of the stake Geely has bought is currently unclear but likely to be below 3 percent as this is the threshold that would require the Chinese company to make a regulatory disclosure in Germany.

German paper Bild am Sonntag reported last Sunday that Geely wants to become Daimler’s biggest shareholder while last November a report surfaced saying that Daimler turned down an offer from Geely to buy a stake of up to 5 percent via a discounted share placement.

“Geely has opted mainly to show their seriousness and to impress on Daimler folks that they are not going away,” one of the unnamed sources, said. A spokesman for Geely declined to comment.

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said on Tuesday that he had no information about Geely buying shares of his company. “I haven’t seen the chairman of Geely at least for a year,” Zetsche said at the sidelines of the new Mercedes Sprinter’s reveal event.

Sources with knowledge of Geely’s thinking have said that the Chinese company wants to access Daimler’s electric car battery technology and establish an EV joint venture in China.

Chinese carmakers are pressured to ramp up production of fully electric and hybrid cars ahead of the tough new regulations imposed by China. Geely wants to persuade Daimler of the mutual benefits of a partnership in electric vehicles and their components.

Note: Generation EQ Concept pictured