Russian auto components holding MGC Group buys Joyson Safety Systems' plant
MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) - The Russian auto components holding MGC Group LLC, which was established based on the previously consolidated Russian assets of Magna, has acquired the Ulyanovsk plant of Joyson Safety Systems LLC, which produces steering systems, seat belts and airbags.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the deal for Moscow-based MGC Group LLC's acquisition of 100% of Joyson Safety Systems LLC was finalized by December 20.
Joyson Safety Systems (JSS) was formed on the basis of the Japanese company Takata's assets, known for its infamous airbags. Takata, which was founded in 1933, went bankrupt in 2018 after a series of fatal incidents caused by defective products and large-scale global recalls. In 2018, U.S.-based Key Safety Systems (KSS), owned by China's Ningbo Joyson Electronic, acquired Takata's assets and renamed the company JSS.
According to its financial statements, the revenue of the Russian JSS plant stood at approximately 3.9 billion rubles in 2023. Profits doubled to nearly 550 million rubles. The primary customer of the plant's products is Avtovaz , whose orders accounted for over 90% of its revenue last year. Small batches were also supplied to the AGR, Aurus and NAMI plants.
MGC Group LLC, the buyer of the Russian JSS plant, was registered in Moscow in 2012 as Delonzh LLC and renamed E-Mobile LLC in 2021. Under this name, the company acquired the former Russian enterprises of Canada's Magna last year. These include Magna St. Petersburg LLC (now Peterform Facility LLC) and Peterform LLC (currently Peterform LLC), as well as Magna Seating Nizhny Novgorod LLC (now MS Seating Nizhny Novgorod LLC) and Magna Seating Rus LLC (now MS Seating Rus LLC) registered in Naberezhnye Chelny. Later, in late September 2023, E-Mobile LLC also acquired Magna's primary legal entity - Nizhny Novgorod-based JSC Magna Automotive Rus (now JSC MS Automotive).
The largest of the automotive components subsidiaries acquired by the company was Peterform, whose annual turnover in the pre-crisis year of 2021 was 15 billion rubles. Around 90% of its revenue came from stamping orders for Hyundai's St. Petersburg plant, which is now part of the AGR group.
The owners of MGC Group LLC, whose main activity shifted from railway passenger transportation to software development after acquiring Magna's assets, are Olga Savelyeva (99.99%) and Oleg Tenitsky (0.01%). The company's CEO is Pavel Sereda, who previously served as CEO of the Gorky Automobile Plant, development director of GAZ Group and head of its light commercial and passenger vehicles division. Since 2018, Sereda has been deputy CEO of 1520 Group, where he focused on consolidating and forming the railway automation and telemechanics division, according to open sources.
MGC Group featured in a press release issued by the Industry and Trade Ministry this spring. At the end of May, Deputy Minister Albert Karimov, who oversees the automotive industry, visited the group's Nizhny Novgorod production facility. Karimov and Sereda discussed the group's prospects for collaboration with Russian automakers, local producers and material suppliers, as well as plans to expand the holding's geographical presence, the ministry said. MGC Group comprises 11 plants - "production divisions manufacturing interior and exterior parts made of plastic and automotive glass and carrying out operations relating to seat assembly and cutting, stamping and welding of metal body components and passive safety systems," the ministry said.