It is easy to call Geely's purchase of Volvo Cars a win-win deal. The combination of a European luxury car brand famous for its safety and quality with a fast-growing Chinese automaker excelling in tapping the world's largest auto market looks like a promising formula for future success.

The marriage between Geely and Volvo, largely a result of the global economic recession, is definitely a milestone in the development of not only the two companies but the Chinese auto industry. It marks the largest acquisition of an overseas carmaker by a Chinese company, and is China's biggest foray into the ownership of a big luxury brand. Geely's move is seen as emblematic of the shift in the global car industry's center of gravity from the US and western Europe to China.

The far more exciting part of this story, however, has yet to unfold: How will Geely enable Volvo to continue to build its business and return to profitability?

Undoubtedly, the Chinese auto market has ample room for a successful Volvo. It's been predicted that China's demand for luxury cars will more than double in five years from 300,000 last year.

There is a great deal of room for Geely to move up from a cost-efficient carmaker to an auto giant with high quality and safety in its DNA.

Nevertheless, challenges and risks loom, as a number of Chinese enterprises have already bitterly learned through their foreign acquisitions in recent years.

It remains unclear if Geely can manage to run Volvo as well as its own brand. But we hope that its name, which literally means auspicious in Chinese, will bring the good luck it needs to achieve a real feat.

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