The story of Li Shu Fu began in 1963 in Taizhou, a small coastal town of Zhejiang in China, in a family of rice farmers.

As in many chinese dreams, Li’s entrepreneurial flame was lit thanks to a 100 yuan (13 euros) note given to him by his father. The contractor, aged 18, then acquired a camera. He cycled through the picturesque sites of the region and offered his services to tourists. Some time later, the young man starts a recycling activity of old household appliances.

This is the starting point of Geely (lucky in Chinese), launched in 1986.

The company manufactures spare parts for refrigerators then manufactures them in full. Three years later, political events force the entrepreneur to withdraw from the market. Li Shu Fu took the opportunity to return to school and became an engineer at the University of Shenzhen. It is in this new city that he bought his first vehicle, of Chinese manufacture, which will trigger his car obsession. But the monopoly of state-owned enterprises is holding him back. Unlicensed, the businessman goes on the mopeds. The purchase of an old bankrupt van workshop enables him to circumvent the ban of the authorities. Geely released its first vehicles on 8/8/1998, a lucky number in China. Defective, because not waterproof, they will not go on sale. Understanding that he did not yet have the necessary expertise, Li Shu Fu resigned himself to the launch of low-end vehicles in the 2000s.

His first steps are shy or even mocked by competitors in the sector.

Despite this, Li Shu Fu finally obtained his license in 2001 which makes Geely the first official actor of the private sector. He quickly understood the importance of network and became close to a certain Xi Jinping, at this time governor of Zhejiang Province. The businessman tried to go at every salons, made contacts and eyed companies such as Ford which keeps him at distance. It did not forget its dreams of beautiful cars and supplied more and more by international equipment manufacturers without increasing its margins, a way to build customer loyalty. Ford, in trouble after the 2008 crisis separated from Volvo Cars. In 2010, Geely became the largest shareholder. Despite some worries of employees, Li respects the autonomy of the Swedish manufacturer, whom he sees as a «tiger». To the trade unions’ questions about his investment, he will answer «because I love you».

Li Shu Fu has been able to position itself in Europe to acquire know-how while offering these companies the opening to the factories and the Chinese market.

The Volvo brand has since racked up the awards in 2018 and recorded record sales. In 2019, it announced a 13.9% growth in its worldwide sales, notably by relying on its electrical ranges. From this alliance is born the joint venture Lynk & co, which offers vehicles developed in Sweden and made in China. The brand targets urban youth with an offer inspired by an automobile Netflix: all equipped, without option, no dealer, internet sales and Lynk shops, the brand also offers a sharing interface to rent his vehicle. In 2013, Geely took over the London taxis LEVC and heavily invested since for the electrification of the range. For 10 years, Li Shu Fu has distinguished itself by its numerous acquisitions in Europe: in 2017 alone, the company took over the Malaysian Proton (49.9%), its flagship subsidiary of Lotus sports cars (51%), Terrafugia (American start-up working on flying cars). He has also become the 1st shareholder of AB Volvo (8.2%), the second largest manufacturer of trucks and buses, and finally to the surprise of all of the German automobile institution Daimler (9.6%) in 2018. Recently, Daimler has consented to the production of its Smart at Geely. What panic other players in the sector who feel the creation of a world empire. The entrepreneur does not stop there and participates in the fundraising (50M euros) of Volocopter which has Daimler as the majority shareholder... The entrepreneur lives in Hangzhou (China) with his wife. He is passionate about poetry and loves to write worms in his spare time. The outsider of the Chinese car, long underestimated has not finished talking about him.