Volkswagen sold its Russian business, including the Kaluga plant

A structure belonging to the Avilon car dealer holding has become the buyer of local assets previously owned by the German manufacturer.

< p> Foreign automakers continue to leave the Russian market. Information that Volkswagen is going to sell its Kaluga plant appeared in the media at the end of July last year. Potential applicants for the role of new owners of the enterprise were named in the early spring of 2023, including the Avilon dealer holding in the short list.

.jpg» />It was he, or rather his structure LLC Art-Finance, who became the buyer of the Russian business of Volkswagen. Information that the deal to sell the assets of the German company was approved by the government commission for the control of foreign investment, appeared about a month ago. Now, VW's head office has released an official announcement that the related deal has been completed. Its amount was not disclosed.

The German manufacturer reported on the sale of its shares in Volkswagen Group Rus LLC, including subsidiaries Volkswagen Components and Services LLC, Scania Leasing LLC, Scania Finance LLC and Scania Insurance LLC. The company emphasized that the deal includes both production facilities in Kaluga and the structure of the importer (distribution business and after-sales service), as well as warehousing and financial services.

Recall that back in 2007, a SKD assembly of cars started at the Kaluga Volkswagen plant, located on the territory of the Grabtsevo technopark. And in 2009, the company switched to the production of cars in a full cycle — with welding, painting and assembly. The production capacity of the site is designed for the annual production of 225 thousand cars.

The VW plant in Kaluga stopped production at the beginning of March last year. Before the crisis, three models in demand in Russia rolled off the assembly line of this site — Volkswagen Polo and Tiguan, as well as Skoda Rapid. Back in 2015, a site for the production of motors was opened, its capacity is designed to produce up to 150 thousand engines per year.

By the way, Volkswagen had to prepare for the sale of local assets amid litigation. So, earlier all of them were under arrest at the suit of GAZ due to the loss of the Russian partner in the amount of 15.6 billion rubles. After some time, the manufacturer managed to achieve the lifting of the arrest on objects of real and movable property of Volkswagen Group Rus, but a week later the GAZ group filed a new lawsuit — this time for 28.4 billion rubles (then the court refused to take interim measures).

The Kaluga plant is expected to be restarted in the future. Earlier, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov noted that the partner of the new owner of the enterprise would most likely be a company from Southeast Asia. He has not yet named specific applicants.