British luxury sports cars brand Lotus gets a fresh lease of life, courtesy Volvo's parent Geely

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd aka Geely has completed the transaction to purchase a majority stake in the British luxury sports brand Lotus on Friday, September 29. Geely Holding now owns a majority stake of 51 percent in Lotus Advance Technologies Sdn Bhd (Lotus) with a minority 49 percent being held by Etika Automotive (Etika), a Malaysian automotive group.

Though Geely in not a popular name in the world automotive atlas, the Chinese outfit become the talk of the industry when they bought Volvo Cars from Ford in 2010. Under Geely ownership, Volvo has refocused its product lineup and sales numbers indicate the Swedish company is currently in the success path.

Under the ownership of Geely, sports cars and racing cars specialist Lotus will be expecting a similar turnaround. Lotus' car portfolio includes the Esprit, Elan, Europa, Elise and Exige sports cars and it had motor racing success with Team Lotus in Formula One. It also owns the engineering consultancy Lotus Engineering, which has facilities in the United Kingdom,  the United States, China, and Malaysia. The brand was previously owned by DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary Proton.

With the transaction completed, the Board of Directors for Lotus has been formally established, consisting of five seats of which three are appointed by Geely Holding and two are appointed by Etika.

Geely Holding's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Daniel Donghui Li has been appointed as Chairman of the Lotus Board. Feng Qing Feng, Geely Auto Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and also Nathan Yu Ning, who is the Vice President of International Business and Executive Advisor to the President at Geely Holding will also join the board.

Etika has appointed Dato' Sharil Tarmizi, a corporate consultant and a long-term supporter of technology companies to the Lotus board and will announce a further addition to the board in due course. Jean-Marc Gales will continue in his role at Lotus as the Chief Executive Officer since joining the company in 2014.

For 2017, Lotus will introduce its fastest car ever – the Evora GT430 and it will also focus on expansion into the US and Chinese markets.