Stockholm syndrome?

Many column inches have been written in the media about Geely’s purchase of Volvo from Ford in late March. But as usual, the lawyers who hammered out the deal have stayed largely in the background.

The acquisition has been reported as another indication of the shift of global economic power to China. Geely is based in Zhejiang province and manufactured its first car in 1998, 71 years after Volvo was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden. Geely has made overseas investments before, including the purchase of a stake in Manganese Bronze, the manufacturer of London taxis. But until news of its designs on Volvo emerged, the company was largely unknown outside China.

The Volvo deal also focused attention on the chairman and founder of Geely, Li Shufu. Li’s first business was, reportedly, taking photographs of tourists at beauty spots, using an old bicycle and camera purchased with RMB100 awarded to him as a school graduation present. From there, he progressed to selling silver which was a by-product of the photographic development process; then he moved on to making refrigerators, motorcycles and ultimately cars. Last year, the US magazine Forbes ranked him as China’s 44th richest person, with a net worth of US$1.3 billion.

Whether by accident or design, Li’s media image combines chutzpah and Confucianism. Bill Russo, the former head of Chrysler in China, has likened him to America’s industrial and financial pioneers, the Carnegies and the Rockefellers. The reception room at Geely’s headquarters is reported to feature a carpet woven with a poem Li wrote himself. Poetry looms large on his personal website, www.lishufu.com.