New report says Ford is selling Volvo

Ford is reportedly selling Volvo in addition to the Jaguar and Land Rover labels in its Premier Auto Group to help raise an extra $8 billion to help fund its turnaround plan and secure its operations. According to sources close to the deal, the decision to sell was made several weeks ago but there’s no final date set for when sale proceedings will commence.

The timing of the sale will depend on how much buyer interest Volvo could raise, according to our friends at Auto Motor and Sport. If Ford were to get a good offer from a Western carmaker, the sale could proceed quickly, because the integration issues can be sorted out quite quickly. But if it’s private equity, things would move slower as financials would have to be addressed in advanced.

Some of the carmakers rumoured to be interested in Volvo include Renault, which previously planned a merger, as well as Hyundai, a Chinese label and BMW, with the latter reported to be analysing Volvo’s financial details ahead of a possible acquisition.

Tom Hoyt, a spokesman for Ford told reporters from The Associated Press that there were no ongoing talks to sell Volvo, and analyst David Cole has stated that such a sale wouldn’t make sense because Volvo is too integrated within the rest of the Ford empire.