Scania's assets in Russia to be sold in 2022, Man's and Porsche's within a year - Volkswagen
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - The transactions to sell the Russian assets of Traton Group truck makers Scania and Man, as well as those of carmaker Porsche are expected to be completed within 12 months, their parent company, Germany's Volkswagen Group said.
Traton entered into an agreement in the third quarter to sell 100% of shares in Man Truck and Bus Rus LLC to local dealer Man Truck Chelny LLC. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2022, VW said.
In addition, Traton has signed a declaration of intent to sell 100% of shares in Scania-Rus LLC. This transaction is expected to be completed within the next 12 months, VW said.
Traton said in mid-September that Man and Scania would sell their dealership business in Russia to local partners. Scania will also divest its Russian financial division, Scania Leasing LLC, the group said. Traton said it expected to report a loss of up to 550 million euros as a result of the transactions.
Scania and Man are major players on the Russian commercial vehicle market. Together they sold more than mid-size and large trucks in Russia in 2021 and had a combined market share of more than 12%, Avtostat Info reported.
VW also said that sports car maker Prosche AG also considered the options for its market presence in Russia in the third quarter, including the sale of its three subsidiaries in the country to an independent third-party investor. "To this end, the sale negotiations with potential interested buyers were intensified. The transaction is currently expected to be completed within the next twelve months," VW said.
Due to these planned transactions, assets totaling 543 million euros and liabilities of 206 million euros were classified as held for sale as of September 30.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE is the parent company of three Russian subsidiaries: local division Porsche Russland LLC, its leasing subsidiary Porsche Financial Services Russland LLC and the Porsche dealership in Moscow on Leningrad Highway, Porsche Center Moscow LLC, the SPARK-Interfax analytics system showed.
Porsche saw its sales in Russia grow 9.6% to 6,262 vehicles in 2021, the Association of European Businesses reported, and its market share was 0.4%. But in the first nine months of 2022, sales tumbled by more than 70% to 1,286 and the company's market share shrank to 0.3%.
The managing director of Porsche's Russian division, Thomas Staertzel, who had headed the subsidiary since 2009, stepped down in mid-September and was replaced by Russian senior executive Dmitry Kurdyukov, who headed the company's legal support and external communications division for many years, the SPARK-Interfax system showed. Staertzel also stepped down from his position as chairman of the AEB automakers committee at the beginning of this year and was replaced by Hyundai Motor CIS managing director Alexei Kalitsev.