Geely Says Costly Foreign Acquisitions Starting to Pay Off

(Beijing) – The automaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. says its string of acquisitions in the past five years, including for Sweden's Volvo Cars, is finally paying off with stronger sales, but analysts warn the aggressive expansion has left it straddled with a lot of debt.

The company's domestic sales grew to 510,000 units in 2015, up 22 percent from the previous year, racing ahead of the 4.7 average for the industry. Those figures made the company the tenth-largest auto firm in China in term of sales, analysts said. It also helped Geely claim something a U-turn after sales slumped 22 percent in 2014 from a year earlier amid a broader slide in market share for homegrown autos.