China Herald: Volvo to become Chinese?

via WikipediaYesterday I was at a meeting on China in Amsterdam, where the debate among a group of board members of larger Dutch companies also moved into the direction of the Chinese efforts to buy in now parts of the garage sale that is happening in the US and parts of Europe.
Antoine van Agtmael - he helped to write the first World Bank report on China in the 1980's - was invited to share his views and he will do the same early January in Beijing when he will be advising the Chinese government.
Despite the high-profile failures of China's global inroads - described by Van Agtmael diplomatically as "a learning process" - and the panic the financial recession sometimes caused in the financial headquarters in Beijing, China is still expected to continue its global adventures.
The former Swedish car producer Volvo, now owned by Ford, is according to media reports like this one, closest to becoming bought by Changan Automobile. The China Economic Review:

According to state media, Xu Liuping, Changan's president, participated in discussions with Ford and Volvo during an auto show last month in Guangzhou. No details of the talks were given, but an unidentified Changan executive was quoted as saying there was a chance for a deal. Ford is keen to divest itself of Volvo as it negotiates a multi-billion dollar bailout from the US government.

General Motors is equally eager to offload SAAB, those media reports say. Van Agtmael advise to China will be to continue looking for good investments, but at a slow speed, since the current recession won't be over very soon.

A speech by Antoine van Agtmael, last year, so well before the current economic crisis, but making similar points.

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