Russia’s major car maker AVTOVAZ has announced closing the deal to acquire a share in the authorized capital of Nissan Manufacturing RUS. The agreement was signed on February 7, 2023 by AVTOVAZ President Maxim Sokolov and NAMI Federal Unitary Enterprise CEO Fedor Nazarov after the deal had been approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, AVTOVAZ said in a statement.
A per the agreement, AVTOVAZ acquired 99% in the authorized capital of Nissan Manufacturing RUS for 1 euro paying for it in rubles according to the exchange rate on the day of payment.
The deal has a condition providing an call option for Nissan to buy back its former Russian assets during six years in case such a decision made by the company is approved by the RF Government.
“The main task for our mutual efforts at the moment is increasing production volume and offer in the Russian car market,” Albert Karimov, Deputy Minister of industry and trade of Russia, said.
“The AVOTOVAZ team is facing the challenge of not only restarting car manufacturing at the St. Petersburg facility, but also of increasing the localization. Besides, the re-launch of the plant will help increased industrial production in the region and maintain workplaces,” he added.
“AVTOVAZ confirms the plan to restart car manufacturing at the former Nissan plant in St. Petersburg as early as in second half of 2023. These will be new LADA models in the C and D segments,” Maxim Sokolov said.
According to Sokolov, this year up to 10 thousand units can be manufactured. ‘In future, the high professional competencies of our team will allow of increasing production volume practically unlimitedly depending on the demand in the Russian market. We will localize the production of those cars during 2024-2027 relying on more than 30 regional suppliers of car parts,’ he said.
Photo: AVTOVAZ