Hyundai's Russian assets to be acquired by buyer of Volkswagen assets, Art-Finance

MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - The Russian assets of the South Korea's Hyundai Motor Company will be sold to the Art-Finance company, which is related to the previous buyer of Volkswagen's Russian assets, Avilon dealer holding.

The deal was approved at a meeting of the company's board of directors, Hyundai's press service said. "Hyundai is currently negotiating with Art-Finance on the details of the transaction," the automaker said in a statement.

Hyundai plans to continue providing after-sales service and other services to its customers in Russia.

The value of the deal was not specified in the company's statement. According to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo, it was approved at a symbolic 140,000 won - that is, approximately at 10,000 rubles at the current exchange rate.

Art-Finance LLC, to which the Hyundai assets are being sold, was registered in Moscow in mid-February. Its principal owner is the president of Avilon car dealership group Andrei Pavlovich. As reported, in May, Art Finance bought the assets of the Russian representative office of Volkswagen Group Rus LLC, including the local Volkswagen Components and Service LLC, Scania Leasing LLC, Scania Finance LLC and Scania Insurance LLC controlled by it. VW reported in its accounts that the assets were sold for 125 million euros. The acquired legal entities were later renamed as part of the rebranding process to create an automotive group called AGR.

As reported earlier, there is also interest in the Russian assets of Hyundai, including the St. Petersburg plant, on the part of Kaliningrad-based Avtotor which after the termination of cooperation with its South Korean partner and with German BMW, is developing cooperation with Chinese brands (in particular, with BAIC, Kaiyi, SWM) in the domestic region.

The Hyundai car plant operated in St. Petersburg starting in 2010. Production of cars there was suspended in March 2022 due to difficulties with the supply of components. Until the spring of 2022, the enterprise with annual capacity of more than 200,000 vehicles produced the Hyundai Solaris, Hyundai Creta, Kia Rio and Kia Rio X-Line models. According to 2022 results, the company reduced its revenue 4.1 times to 50.3 billion rubles, and posted a net loss of 18.8 billion rubles compared with 11.2 billion rubles of net profit a year earlier.

In addition to the car plant, Hyundai in St. Petersburg also has an engine production facility, Hyundai Via Rus LLC. This plant is located next to the auto plant and was commissioned in September 2021. The total area of the enterprise's production building is 35,185 square meters, the testing building is 1,133 square meters. The volume of investments in the project were estimated at 15.8 billion rubles.

In 2022, Hyundai Via Rus posted a net loss of 9.995 billion rubles to RAS compared to a net profit of 53.166 million rubles a year earlier, according to the statements. At the same time, the company's losses from asset impairment reached 10.58 billion rubles. At the same time, revenue at the end of last year amounted to 5.006 billion rubles, which is 36.7% more than in the previous year.