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Bloomberg
China has long been a key market for global automotive manufacturers. Now the country is asserting its role as an investor in the industry, stepping up the pace of purchases in the car and heavy-truck sector.
The latest foray: state-backed Beijing Automotive Group Co is buying a 5 percent stake in Daimler AG, the maker of Mercedes-Benz. The announcement caps an increasingly active period for deals — of the major transactions where a Chinese company bought a stake in a non-Chinese automotive firm since 2008, more than half occurred in the last two years, according to Bloomberg data.
Geely was a pioneer, buying Volvo Cars from Ford in 2010. After that, it took almost four years until another Chinese firm again considered the sector, when Dongfeng Motor participated in a capital increase of Peugeot and received a stake of 14 percent in return.