The purchase of one of Europe's most legendary auto brands cost Li Shufu US$ 1.8 billion, or RMB 12.3 billion, along with another US$ 900 million of floating capital Li had prepared in case of emergency. In 2009, the turnover of Geely Holding Group tallied up to US$ 2.2 billion, around RMB 15 billion, making its gross capital roughly US$ 3 billion. Then, the questions coming to heel focus on Li Shufu's sources of wherewithal needed for the purchase. When broken down, of the US$ 2.7 billion used for purchase, over a quarter of the funds were derived from Geely itself, another quarter or less from domestic investment markets and the last half was pulled together from oversea investors from the United States and Europe.

The Adamantine Buyer

"GM and Ford will have to step down from the global car market sooner or later," bragged Li Shufu at an international automobile summit in 2001. The remark exasperated an administrator of GM China subsidiary and triggered uproar throughout the house. However, everyday is not a Sunday. When General Motors declared that it was going into liquidation mode in 2008, this braggart was not in the air anymore and those who once felt uncomfortable with Li's contempt found themselves coming round.

Li's success can be summarized as, if borrowing ITV's presenter Melvyn Bragg's words, "A very early passion which quickly became an adolescent obsession which became an adult, single-minded struggle to have it realized."

In 1963, Li Shufu was born to a peasant family in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. In his youth, he chose to work and earn money instead of studying at university. At the age of 19, he ran a small photo studio, which earned him his first pot of gold. During this period, he discovered a lucrative business opportunity in recycling waste metals and set up his own metallurgy operation. By 1984, 21-year-old Li Shufu had acquired assets of over RMB 2 million, making him one of China's select few.

Prior to getting into the automotive sector, Li was involved in a wide range of fields: he had a refrigerator production factory, a construction materials and decoration company, and a motorbike factory. To everyone's surprise, all his businesses blossomed well to successful enterprises. Even now, his accessorial decorative materials business continues to spawn RMB 200 million with increasing sales every year. His business success brought him great satisfaction but highlighted his lack of managerial knowledge. So in 1991, he decided to further his studies in Shenzhen. This open and relatively developed coastal city gave him not only a university background but also greater action passion.

His rich experiences and business acumen propelled him to exploit another untapped field, which he dubbed as "a blend of four wheels and two sofas." The year was 1997, when his motorbike factory generated a per year output of 300,000 bikes; he set out to make "affordable and comfortable cars for the commons." At that time, nobody in his factory had any idea about making cars except for three people including Li himself, but that did not stop them.