Swedish consortium Jakob AB is vying to buy US automaker Ford's loss-making brand Volvo Cars even though Ford has already picked China's Geely as its preferred bidder.

"We have informed Ford that we are ready to make a financed bid for Volvo," Jakob AB's chief executive Peder Fast told Swedish news agency TT.

He said the consortium had sent an email to Ford on December 4.

That would make Jakob the third bidder for the Swedish brand. In addition to Geely, another consortium led by two former Ford executives, called Crown, raised its bid last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Fast said Jakob had signalled its concrete interest to determine whether Ford was interested in rival bids.

"The important thing is whether Ford is interested in receiving a bid. It takes two to tango," Fast said.

He did not disclose how Ford had reacted to its offer. "I'd rather keep those relations to myself."

Jakob AB started out as a Swedish-only consortium but has since expanded to include foreign investors, he said.

Fast told TT that while no price tag was mentioned in its contacts with Ford, its offer was in line with the other bids for Volvo Cars.

No figures have been revealed for any of the bids, but Geely's is estimated around 2.0 billion dollars (1.34 billion euros), according to the Wall Street Journal.

Ford announced in December 2008 it wanted to sell Volvo Cars, which it fully acquired in a 6.4-billion-dollar deal in 1999.

On November 27, Geely said it had reached an agreement with Ford to own the intellectual property rights to Volvo's key technologies, including those related to safety and the environment, through its purchase of the unit.