Jaguar Land Rover's Russian subsidiary acquired by its top managers' company

MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - The assets of British auto group Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)'s Russian subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover LLC, have been acquired by a company belonging to its senior Russian managers, according to information in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

The deal was closed on October 31. VSKD Motors LLC, registered in Moscow at the end of 2022, now owns 100% of JLR's subsidiary, which previously belonged to the British company Jaguar Land Rover Plc. CEO Vyacheslav Kuzyakov, head of business development Dmitry Ovcharov, after-sales service department head Sergei Skorobogatko, and financial and administrative director Yekaterina Shatalova, who have worked for JLR's Russian subsidiary since the mid-2010s, have become the co-owners with 25% stakes.

Jaguar Land Rover LLC was founded in Moscow in 2008. The company imported, sold and provided after-sales services for premium Land Rover SUVs and Jaguar cars.

The company's revenue on the Russian market peaked at more than 60 billion rubles in 2014, when it sold around 23,000 vehicles, including 21,100 Land Rovers and 1,600 Jaguars, according to data from the Association of European Businesses. Revenue fluctuated around the figure of 50 billion rubles over the following years, without taking into account the relatively small fall due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. JLR announced it was suspending exports to Russia at the start of 2022, and revenue fell to 7.5 billion rubles by the end of that year. Revenue stood at 1.5 billion rubles in 2023.

Jaguar Land Rover LLC's net losses exceeded 1 billion rubles in 2022 and stood at 560 million rubles in 2023. The company made profits ranging from 1.5 billion rubles to 2.5 billion rubles in 2019-2021.

Sales were around 7,000 vehicles, including 6,400 Land Rovers and more than 500 Jaguars, in the pre-crisis year of 2021.

The British Jaguar-Land Rover company belongs to India's Tata Group.