Industrial Investments closes acquisition of former Volvo truck plant in Russia
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - Industrial Investments Group, which is close to entrepreneur Dmitry Strezhnev, has completed the process of acquiring the former truck manufacturing plant of Sweden's Volvo in Kaluga.
The deal was closed on November 23, the group told Interfax without disclosing details about the terms.
JSC Stokov Machinery Equipment, formerly Volvo Vostok, as well as Stokov Components LLC were acquired by JSC Automobile Motor Association (AMO), a company controlled by the group that was registered in early October.
"A new chapter is beginning in the history of not just the plant in Kaluga, but also for Russia's whole auto industry. Another Russian player producing new domestic trucks will appear on the country's map," Industrial Investments CEO Andrei Alexandrov was quoted as saying by the group.
The Kaluga plant is strategically oriented toward producing domestic trucks. The group said it expects to expand the range of products in partnership with Russian and Chinese automakers, localize foreign vehicles and components and create a new brand of Russian trucks.
The plant has already begun temporary assembly of a heavy duty off-road Russian truck. The first trucks are expected to come off the assembly line this month and the plant wants to gradually increase production from one to three trucks per shift by the end of the year.
The company said it wants to retain employees and their competencies, which "will be needed in full when the transition period ends and the plant reaches planned capacity."
"Immediately restarting production made it possible to quickly complete the latest stage of transferring employees to the new entity. For employees not transferred to AMO, all social benefits are being maintained, current voluntary health insurance policies are being guaranteed and two thirds of wages are being paid. Employees not engaged in the first stage of relaunching the production process are being offered employment options at industrial partners and staffing agencies are holding job fairs for them," Industrial Investments said.
Industrial Investments is a recently formed group of companies that includes leading developers and manufacturers of construction, road, farm and specialized machinery, as well as a network of service centers in Russia's regions. In addition to AMO, the group includes heavy machinery brand UMB (SDM LLC, formerly part of United Machine-building Group, which was owned by Strezhnev); new metallurgical business Casting and Forging LLC (Nizhny Novgorod), and Moscow-based Spetstekhnika Leasing LLC.
The parent company of the group is JSC Industrial Investments, which was registered in Moscow in May with charter capital of 200,000 rubles, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities showed. The owners of the company have not been disclosed. The company's CEO is Andrei Alexandrov, who previously held key positions at major Russian and international companies, including UMG.