Contrary to popular myth, truckers do not pick up hitchhikers any longer. Most haulage companies forbid that practice. AB Volvo, the Swedish maker of 18 wheelers, has no choice in the matter. On Wednesday, Volvo dropped off one rider, activist fund Cevian Capital, in exchange for another: privately held Geely Holding of China. The former will sell its 8.2 per cent stake to Geely in a deal worth €3.25bn. For both sides, the deal makes sense.
Cevian had ridden this investment far enough. Not only had the Volvo holding made a hefty profit of €2bn, but its trucks took up a fifth of Cevian’s portfolio. That is a lot of parking space. Moreover, Volvo has come a long way since operating profits bottomed. This year its earnings should hit nearly €30bn, more than triple that of 2013. And its margins, once well below global peers, should mark a record high at 9 per cent. Given that turnround, Cevian could see that an activist’s input was not needed.
Geely has happily taken Cevian’s place in the cab. The Chinese conglomerate had only one obvious gap in its portfolio: trucks. It already has passenger cars (Volvo Cars, Geely), performance cars (Lotus, Polestar) and even a bank (Saxo Bank) to create a financing arm. AB Volvo owns 45 per cent of China’s number four truckmaker Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles. Heavy duty trucks unit sales there have soared, likely up 53 per cent this year to a new record, according to Handelsbanken. Even if that pace slows next year, Geely will expect to pass some of what it has learnt on autonomous driving technology, and electric cars, to the truck business.