Gardell: I don't want to break up Volvo
Financier Christer Gardell said on Friday morning during a radio interview on Swedish Radio’s P1 his fund Cevian is interested in being a long term owner of Volvo and is not interested in breaking the company up.
“To break up Volvo and sell the parts works against existing synergies, is industrial and financial madness, and is nothing we support,” Gardell said.
“Volvo has improved considerably, but valuation has not kept pace,” he said. “We want to work hard from a board position to ensure that Volvo goes from being a good company, to becoming a fantastic one.”
He said is sure a “sensible” solution will be found with Volvo’s election committee, and that Cevian will get a seat on it.
The decision comes after Gardell, through his fund Cevian Capital along with British Parvus Asset Management, bought 8 million A-shares at Volvo last week and demanded changes be made.
Cevian then said that the company had bought the equivalent of 5 percent of the votes at Volvo. The investment company Öresund, which controls 1 percent of the votes at Volvo, supports Cevian.
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“To break up Volvo and sell the parts works against existing synergies, is industrial and financial madness, and is nothing we support,” Gardell said.
“Volvo has improved considerably, but valuation has not kept pace,” he said. “We want to work hard from a board position to ensure that Volvo goes from being a good company, to becoming a fantastic one.”
He said is sure a “sensible” solution will be found with Volvo’s election committee, and that Cevian will get a seat on it.
The decision comes after Gardell, through his fund Cevian Capital along with British Parvus Asset Management, bought 8 million A-shares at Volvo last week and demanded changes be made.
Cevian then said that the company had bought the equivalent of 5 percent of the votes at Volvo. The investment company Öresund, which controls 1 percent of the votes at Volvo, supports Cevian.
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