Chinese-owned Volvo navigating toward IPO on Stockholm stock market The Wall Street Journal

Ben Dummett and William Boston

Volvo Cars, the Swedish automobile maker owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. /zigman2/quotes/200716015/delayed HK:175 +1.87% of China, is completing plans for an initial public offering and is set to announce details of the listing as early as Monday, in a deal that could value the car maker at as much as $25 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

A listing, if it goes ahead, would represent one of the car industry’s most dramatic turnarounds. Ford Motor Co. /zigman2/quotes/208911460/composite F -1.11% , weakened by the global financial crisis, sold the Swedish company to Geely for $1.8 billion in 2010 .

Volvo has long capitalized on a brand recognized for safety, but at the time of its sale, its product lineup had failed to excite car buyers. Geely bankrolled Volvo’s recovery over the next decade, opening China as a market for the brand and providing financing to help the company revamp its model offerings.

Today, Volvo is profitable, with a road map for electric-model rollouts that is ahead of some competitors. Its brand is back in fashion in the U.S. and elsewhere. It now competes with German premium brands, including BMW maker Bayerische Motoren Werke AG /zigman2/quotes/202432319/delayed XE:BMW -0.79% , Volkswagen AG’s /zigman2/quotes/206919008/delayed XE:VOW +0.61% /zigman2/quotes/210463125/delayed VWAPY +0.09% /zigman2/quotes/204431732/delayed VWAGY +0.54% Audi brand and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz.

For the first half of this year, Volvo reported a 41% increase in sales over the same period last year, to 380,757 vehicles. The company’s sales in the U.S. rose 47% to 63,754 vehicles.

An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.

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