Geely Buys Stake in Volvo Trucks, Despite China Restrictions<br />Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the Chinese company that bought Volvo Cars in 2010, said on Wednesday<br />that it would acquire an 8.2 percent stake in AB Volvo, a Swedish manufacturer of trucks, from the activist investment firm Cevian Capital.<br />In a statement on Tuesday, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Chinese government agency<br />that oversees economic planning, said the country’s companies would have to report all foreign investment deals through a new online system.<br />It said it would establish a mechanism to supervise overseas deals "so as to better safeguard national interests<br />and national security." In August, Beijing said it would forbid acquisitions in sectors ranging from entertainment and sports clubs to hotels, reiterating a warning issued late last year.<br />Ash Sutcliffe, a Geely spokesman, said the company was not worried about whether the new rules on outbound investment would affect the AB Volvo deal.<br />Chinese companies spent about $147 billion in cross-border deals this year, according to Dealogic, a data provider.<br />China said it would approve acquisitions by "qualified companies" and encourage deals<br />that supported the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, President Xi Jinping’s ambitious push to increase China’s influence through infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa and Europe.
