AvtoVAZ signed an agreement with the American auto concern General Motors, according to which it buys out 50% of the shares of the joint venture GM-AvtoVAZ. The Togliatti manufacturer sent a request for approval of the transaction by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) on November 8, 2019.
Here's what is known about the deal:
- the enterprise will become a fully affiliated company of AvtoVAZ;
- the GM-AvtoVAZ plant will continue producing and selling off-road vehicles under the Chevrolet brand for some time, but later they will be transferred under the Lada brand;
- the deal will not affect employees of any of the parties, they will continue to work as usual;
- contracts with suppliers and dealers during the transition period also remain unchanged;
- in the future, GM-AvtoVAZ will be renamed.
The joint venture was established in 2001. Then, due to financial difficulties, AvtoVAZ transferred the license for the production of the VAZ-2123 model to an American manufacturer. Now the plant is assembling the first generation Chevrolet Niv SUV, but a new generation of the model has already been developed. For 11 months of 2019, Chevrolet sold 19.4 thousand Shnivs on the Russian market, which is 24.5% less than a year ago. The financial issues of the deal were not disclosed.
