According to a report by Bloomberg, Mercedes-Benz and Zhejiang Geely Holding (ZGH) are looking to sell a stake in their smart Automobile joint venture in order to raise funds to boost the smart brand.
By selling a minority stake in the joint venture, the company hopes to generate between USD500 million to USD1 billion. Currently, smart is estimated to be worth around USD5 billion and a private fundraising deal could attract attract interest from other carmakers and strategic investment funds.
The brand, which was previously wholly owned by Mercedes-Benz, sold small city cars but has since announced that it will be come an electric vehicle maker. Under the joint venture, Mercedes-Benz will be responsible for vehicle design, while Geely will handle the engineering side of things. The first product due will be an electric SUV that was previewed by the Concept #1 last year, which will reportedly be underpinned by Geely’s Sustainable Electric Architecture (SEA).
The upcoming model will also be sold here through Proton Edar which secured a distributorship agreement with smart to import the latter’s new range of electric vehicles into Malaysia and Thailand.
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