Volvo Car Group, which is owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co, said it has no immediate plans for an initial public offering after a newspaper reported on Wednesday that the automaker was considering a listing next year.
Swedish business daily Dagens Industri, citing unnamed sources, said that Volvo Cars and its Chinese owner could decide this year on whether to go public in 2017.
“We have no immediate plans for an IPO. This is a question for our owner,” a Volvo Cars spokesman said in an emailed statement sent to Reuters.
Rising sales and profits at Volvo Cars has led to speculation of a stock market listing over the past year, although 2017 would be earlier than many have thought.
A spokesman for Geely, which bought Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co. (F) in 2010, said in an emailed comment to Reuters that it currently had no plans for an initial public offering of Volvo Cars.
Volvo Cars is targeting a boost in sales to 800,000 cars in the medium term on the back of a string of new, more up-market models.
Volvo sold 473,528 cars in January through November, up 7% year-on-year, helped by strong demand for its XC90 SUV, the first new model developed under Geely ownership and leaving it poised for its third straight year of record sales.
The Gothenburg-based company also returned to international bond markets earlier this year, with its first corporate bond raising 500 million euros ($533 million), followed by its first Swedish bond issue last month.
