The chairman of China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. traveled to Sweden Friday to finalize his company’s acquisition of Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo car unit, a landmark deal for China’s burgeoning car industry that also poses serious challenges for Geely.

Geely Chairman Li Shufu is expected to preside over the signing of the deal in Sweden as early as Sunday, according to two people close to the Chinese company. Under the preliminary agreement, Geely will pay $1.8 billion for Ford’s unprofitable Swedish car brand, with loans and other financial backing from banks in China, the U.S. and Europe, including low-interest loans guaranteed by the governments of Sweden and Belgium, one of the two people said. Geely’s Hong Kong-listed unit, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., and some Chinese local governments also would invest in the deal, the person said. He wouldn’t identify those investors.

A final deal would be the culmination of years of planning by Geely and intensive negotiations with Ford over the last 18 months. The deal would make Volvo one of the most prominent foreign brands to be purchased by a Chinese company, and would mark the first time a Chinese company has acquired the full operations of a major foreign auto maker.

It would also be the biggest step so far in a broader push by China to create a handful of globally competitive auto makers out of an industry that today is largely fragmented. That effort has had mixed success: Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. reached an agreement in December to acquire certain assets of General Motors Co.’s Saab unit, but another Chinese company, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, last month abandoned a planned purchase of GM’s Hummer unit after failing to gain Chinese government approval.