Geely's Strategic Major Integration: Lynk & Co and ZEEKR Merge, Equity Consolidated Under Hong Kong Listed Company
After the merger, Lynk & Co, which was previously established as a joint venture by Geely Holding, Geely Automobile, and Volvo, will no longer have a direct relationship with Geely Holding and Volvo Cars, but will be held by ZEEKR. Geely Automobile's Gui Shengyue stated that the integration of Lynk & Co and ZEEKR is aimed at avoiding competition within the same industry and reducing duplicate investments and overlapping expenses
Geely launches a comprehensive internal business integration, Lynk & Co and ZEEKR merge.
On the evening of November 14th, Geely Automobile announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its subsidiary ZEEKR will strategically integrate with Lynk & Co, with ZEEKR holding 51% of Lynk & Co's shares, while the remaining 49% will continue to be held by Geely Automobile's wholly-owned subsidiary.
It is reported that the shareholders behind ZEEKR include Geely Holding and Geely Automobile. After this transaction, ZEEKR will no longer be directly controlled by Geely Holding but will become a holding subsidiary of Geely Automobile; meanwhile, Lynk & Co, which was previously established as a joint venture by Geely Holding, Geely Automobile, and Volvo, will no longer have a direct relationship with Geely Holding and Volvo Cars, but will be controlled by ZEEKR.
According to media reports, the financial and procurement teams of the two companies will be the first to complete the merger, and adjustments in product, research and development, and other departments will also be promoted from the end of this year to early next year.
The integration of ZEEKR and Lynk & Co is the latest move by Geely to advance this round of business integration. On September 20th of this year, Geely Chairman Li Shufu announced the "Taizhou Declaration," stating that the company would shift from strategic expansion to strategic focus and integration, shutting down and transferring some businesses, and adhering to prudent operations without blind expansion.
Some media opinions point out that Geely is systematically sorting out internal relationships, with the core aim of avoiding redundant efforts and allowing all parties to focus on car manufacturing, thereby enhancing overall competitiveness.
Gui Shengyue: Without integration, it will inevitably lead to competition among peers and result in redundant investments.
Public information shows that the passenger car brands under Geely Holding Group include: Geely, Lynk & Co, Geometry, Rui Blue, Proton, Volvo, Polestar, ZEEKR, Lotus, smart, London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC), Radar, and more than a dozen other brands.
Xinhua Finance analysis points out that due to the large number of brands under its umbrella, some brands face issues such as overlapping positioning, low recognition, and resource waste. Geely's choice to "subtract" in terms of branding is an important measure to optimize resource allocation and enhance competitiveness.
As the two brands in this round of integration, Lynk & Co and ZEEKR also target the high-end market, with their official websites showing that they are positioned as "new era high-end brands" and "new era luxury technology brands," respectively. However, Lynk & Co's models include both fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, while ZEEKR currently offers only pure electric models.
At the third-quarter earnings meeting held earlier in the afternoon, Geely Automobile Holdings Limited's CEO and Executive Director Gui Shengyue responded that, from the perspective of product evolution, ZEEKR can be said to have evolved from Lynk & Co. According to the current status of the two brands, although they have different positioning, there is indeed some overlap in pricing, and without integration, it will inevitably lead to competition among peers.
Furthermore, if the two do not integrate, there will be redundant investments and overlapping expenses in many areas that could originally be shared (such as research and development, architecture, sales, etc.).
Gui Shengyue stated:
"In the current fiercely competitive landscape of the Chinese automobile market, we need to efficiently share resources and use scale to drive cost reductions, thereby enhancing competitiveness, which is very important for every company."
Earlier today, the financial report showed that Geely Automobile's Q3 revenue broke 60 billion for the first time, reaching 60.378 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20% Set a new quarterly record. Among them, ZEEKR's Q3 vehicle revenue exceeded 144 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 7%, achieving the best quarterly performance, with a vehicle gross margin of 15.7%, setting a new high for the year