(Yicai) Nov. 28 -- Shares of Geely Automobile Holdings rose after its chairman spent around HKD316 million (USD40.6 million) to raise his stake in the Chinese auto giant to just over 41 percent.

Geely [HKG: 0175] rose 3 percent to HKD13.54 (USD1.74) a share as of lunch break in Hong Kong today, after earlier jumping by as much as 6.5 percent. Its market capitalization reached HKD136.3 billion (USD17.5 billion).

Li Shufu bought 24.2 million shares of Geely on Nov. 26 and yesterday, according to the latest information on the Hong Kong bourse. He holds 4.17 billion Geely shares worth about HKD55.9 billion (USD7.2 billion).

Geely sold a record 226,700 units last month, up 28 percent from a year earlier, with new energy vehicle sales jumping 83 percent also to a record 108,700 units, according to its latest financial report. Its net profit surged 358 percent to nearly CNY13.1 billion (USD1.8 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30 from a year ago, while operating revenue jumped 36 percent to CNY167.7 billion (USD23.1 billion).

Geely Holding Group, Geely's parent firm, is in a strategic transformation phase. On Nov. 14, it announced that it would transfer its 11.3 percent stake in Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding to Geely Auto, whose stake in the NEV brand will increase to about 63 percent.

In addition, Geely Holding subsidiary Volvo Cars also disclosed on the same day that it will sell a 30 percent stake in Lynk & Co to Zeekr for CNY5.4 billion in a cash deal expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year. After the transaction, Zeekr will hold a 51 percent stake in its more affordable sister brand, with the rest owned by a unit of Geely Auto.

Editor: Martin Kadiev