3 August 2015, Shanghai, China. Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (Referred to as ‘Geely Auto’ below) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance(Referred to as ‘BNPP PF’) are pleased to announce that their financial joint venture has received the official approval from the Chinese Government to commence business operations now.

The new joint venture, named Genius Auto Finance Co., Ltd. (Referred to as ‘Genius AFC’ below and its Chinese name: 吉致汽车金融有限公司), has been established its headquarters in the heart of China’s financial community in Pudong, Shanghai. Geely Auto and BNPP PF first moved to create the joint venture in December 2013 with a view to providing cost effective wholesale and retail loans directly to Geely Auto dealerships and consumers alike.

Ms. Xia Li, the Director of the Auto Finance Service in Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. will be appointed as the Director and the General Manager of Genius AFC. She commented: “

“Genius AFC will dedicate to offering Geely Auto dealers and its end customers more secure, more professional, and more expedient ‘one-stop shop’ auto finance services. While helping Geely Auto dealers to improve their operation efficiency and maximize their retained earnings, Genius AFC would also help to provide Geely Auto end customers more fast and more efficient services across the country.”

Genius AFC is an 80-20 percent joint venture between Geely Auto and BNPP PF with both parties jointly investing RMB900 million into the new company. Genius AFC will intend to commence the wholesale operations from September 2015 and then the retail before the end of this year on a phased roll out across China.