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BERLIN – Volvo Cars has extended its CEO's contract for two years due to growing uncertainty over plans by the company's Chinese owner to promote the Swedish luxury car brand.
Hakan Samuelsson's contract, which was due to expire in 2020, had been extended until 2022, Volvo said in a statement. Mr. Samuelsson took the reins of the automaker in 2012 as he faltered after his takeover by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding, investment vehicle of Chinese magnate Li Shufu.
Mr. Samuelsson has led a major transformation of society. Backed by Geely, who is trying to become the world's largest car manufacturer in China, Samuelsson has reviewed Volvo's range of vehicles, improving quality and adapting it to current consumer trends.
He also lobbied to turn Volvo into a largely electric vehicle builder. And earlier this year, Volvo returned to the US market with the opening of a manufacturing plant in South Carolina.
This decision was also linked to the company's expectation of being publicly traded, which the company said was an option but it never gave a detailed timetable for the offer. With growing trade tensions between the United States and China, the time had not come for an initial public offering, Samuelsson told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday.
The calendar, he said, "was not optimal" and a list "would not happen immediately".
Volvo confirmed Samuelsson's comments and reiterated that if IPO was an option, current market conditions were not favorable.
The reluctance of the company to go forward with an IPO comes as Aston Martin Laconda, the famous manufacturer of British sports cars, continues its advertising projects.
Aston Martin confirmed its plans to register on Monday and named Penny Hughes, a British businesswoman who
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in the UK and Ireland, as chair of its independent board of directors.
Aston Martin said its shares could start trading on the London FTSE in October.
Write to William Boston at [email protected]
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