Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely to buy 30% stake in Saxo Bank

Zhejiang Geely, the Chinese carmaker that owns Sweden’s Volvo, is buying about 30 per cent of Denmark’s Saxo Bank in a striking move into financial services.

The deal will see Saxo’s co-founder and former chief executive, Lars Christensen, sell his 25.7 per cent stake to the Chinese group as well as certain other smaller investors.

That would make Geely the bank’s biggest shareholder, just ahead of private equity group TPG Capital with 29 per cent and chief executive Kim Fournais with 26 per cent.

Daniel Donghui Li, Geely’s chief financial officer, said:

We look forward to partnering with Saxo Bank through this transaction to expand Geely Group’s activities in the financial services sector…We expect to deliver group synergies from the development of financial services both within Geely Group and the wider Chinese market.

Mr Fournais added:

I am confident that partnering with Geely creates an even stronger foundation to capitalise on the many global opportunities and not least in the growing Chinese and Asian markets.