SHANGHAI: Geely Automobile, whose shares soared yesterday after being named the "preferred bidder" for Ford's Volvo unit, could win a valuable brand if the bid succeeds, but could take years to see profits from the loss-making Swedish carmaker.

Home-grown Geely, which means "lucky" in Chinese, is hungry for modern and innovative technologies that can upgrade its cars to tap the growing affluent auto market in China, the biggest in the world.

"I think the market is still divided on the Geely deal," said Chen Qiaoning, an analyst with ABN AMRO TEDA Fund Management.