Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, parent of Geely Auto, has secured financing to buy Ford Motor's Volvo unit for about US$ 2.1 billion, media sources have reported, citing a Swedish business daily.

Sources revealed that Chinese financial institutions and regional government bodies had provided the money for Geely to complete its Volvo purchase.

The money was already "in the bank account" of Geely Group, which would also have offered guarantees to Ford about the financing of its business plan for Volvo, the sources said.

Geely said earlier this week that its plan to buy the Volvo brand for US$ 2 billion was proceeding on track and had yet to sign an agreement in its ongoing bid for the Swedish unit of Ford. As the largest private carmaker in China, Geely had been aiming to reach a formal deal by February 14th and now expects to complete the purchase by the end of March.

Geely said it will nearly double Volvo's annual global output to 300,000 cars with a new factory in Beijing to pull the Swedish automaker out of the red by 2011.