The Volvo Group (Swedish: Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of trucks, buses and construction equipment, Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems and financial services. In 2016, it was the world’s second-largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks with its subsidiary Volvo Trucks.
Automobile manufacturer Volvo Cars, also based in Gothenburg, was part of AB Volvo until 1999, when it was sold to the Ford Motor Company. Since 2010 Volvo Cars has been owned by the automotive company Geely Holding Group. Both AB Volvo and Volvo Cars share the Volvo logo and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum in Sweden.
| Website | www.volvogroup.com |
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The corporation was first listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1935, and was on the NASDAQ indices from 1985 to 2007.
Volvo was established in 1915 as a subsidiary of SKF, a ball bearing manufacturer; however both the Volvo Group and Volvo Cars regard the rollout of the company’s first car series, the Volvo ÖV 4, on 14 April 1927, as their beginning.
“Volvo History
The Volvo Group has its origin in 1927 when the first Volvo car rolled off the production line at the factory in Gothenburg. Only 280 cars were built that year. The first truck, the “Series 1”, debuted in January 1928, as an immediate success and attracted attention outside the country. In 1930, Volvo sold 639 cars, and the export of trucks to Europe started soon after; the cars did not become well-known outside Sweden until after World War II.
Pentaverken, who had manufactured engines for Volvo, was acquired in 1935, providing a secure supply of engines and entry into the marine engine market.
The first bus, named B1, was launched in 1934, and aircraft engines were added to the growing range of products at the beginning of the 1940s. In 1963, Volvo opened the Volvo Halifax Assembly plant, the first assembly plant in the company’s history outside of Sweden inHalifax, Canada. In 1999, the European Union blocked a merger with Scania AB.
Volvo Group sold its car division Volvo Car Corporation to Ford Motor Company for $6.45 billion during 2000, it was placed within thePremier Automotive Group alongside Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin. Volvo engineering resources and components would be used in various Ford, Land Rover and Aston Martin products, with the second generation Land Rover Freelander designed on the same platform as the second generation Volvo S80. The Volvo T5 petrol engine was used in the Ford Focus ST and RS performance models, and Volvo’s satellite navigation system was used on certain Aston Martin Vanquish, DB9 and V8 Vantage models.
Ford sold the Volvo Car Corporation in 2010 to Geely Automobile of China for $1.8 billion, following on from their sale of Jaguar Land Rover in 2008 and Aston Martin in 2007.
Renault Véhicules Industriels (which included Mack Trucks, but not Renault’s stake in Irisbus) was sold to Volvo during January 2001, Volvo renamed it Renault Trucks in 2002.Renault became AB Volvo’s biggest shareholder with a 19.9% stake (in shares and voting rights) as part of the deal. Renault increased its shareholding to 21.7% by 2010.
AB Volvo acquired 13% of the shares in the Japanese truck manufacturer UD Trucks (the former Nissan Diesel) from Nissan Motor Co Ltd (part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance) during 2006 becoming a major shareholder. Volvo Group took complete ownership of Nissan Diesel in 2007 to extend its presence in the Asian Pacific market.
Renault sold 14.9% of their stake in AB Volvo in October 2010 (comprising 14.9% of the share capital and 3.8% of the voting rights) for €3.02bn. This share sale left Renault with around 17.5% of Volvo’s voting rights. Renault sold their remaining shares in December 2012 (comprising 6.5% of the share capital and 17.2% of the voting rights at the time of transaction) for €1.6bn, leaving Swedish industrial investment group Aktiebolaget Industrivärden as the largest shareholder, with 6.2% of the share capital and 18.7% of the voting rights.”
*Information from Volvocars.com and Wikipedia.org
**Video published on YouTube by “Volvo Cars“
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