Geely Holding Group is pushing ahead with a deeper integration between its New York-listed premium brand Zeekr and its Hong Kong-listed Geely Auto, as it aims to tighten control over its sprawling automotive empire and drive profitability through internal consolidation.

The move is part of the "One Geely" strategy, an effort to unify its businesses under a single operating architecture, eliminate internal redundancies, and sharpen its competitiveness against rivals like BYD and Chery.

Daniel Donghui Li, CEO of Geely Holding Group, said on Thursday that structural separation between Zeekr and Geely Auto had limited the speed and effectiveness of integration efforts.

This was the first time that the group's top executive had offered an in-depth explanation for the reasons behind Geely Auto's offer to take Zeekr private earlier this month.

"Because they are listed in different capital markets, with independent management teams and separate front-end marketing, there have been constraints on how deeply and how quickly we could integrate," Li said.

He noted that internal estimates suggest the group could save "several billion yuan annually" in research and development through tighter coordination.

"Last year, joint procurement alone delivered additional savings of billions of yuan beyond the original budget," he added.

"We also expect substantial reductions in management and marketing expenses through greater coordination across manufacturing, human resources, finance and legal functions," said Li.

The move, which will see Zeekr CEO An Conghui take over the position from Li, comes after Zeekr absorbed its sister brand Lynk & Co earlier this year.

Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Auto, said the Lynk & Co merger had "delivered significant benefits". "The next step will be a deeper integration between Zeekr and Geely Auto," he said.

"We've set preliminary internal targets — more than 5 percent improvement in overall efficiency, and 15 to 20 percent gains in R&D productivity, management effectiveness and marketing cost efficiency," said Gan.

Gan's remarks offer a rare glimpse into how Geely Holding Group plans to extract tangible operational and financial returns from its internal restructuring, as the company prepares for a more competitive phase in the Chinese market.

The "One Geely" initiative also aligns with broader consolidation trends in the NEV sector, where competition and price wars have squeezed margins and put pressure on weaker players.

Geely Auto's overall sales hit a record 704,000 units in the first quarter, up 48 percent year-on-year, putting the company on track to meet its full-year sales target.

The Hong Kong-listed unit saw its net profit attributable to shareholders rise to 5.67 billion yuan ($786.3 million) from January to March, while its revenue climbed 25 percent to 72.5 billion yuan.

In comparison, Zeekr delivered 114,011 units in the first quarter, up 21.1 percent year-on-year. Its net losses stood at 763 million yuan for the first quarter, down 60.2 percent.