2023-09-14 04:11:07
Photo: Mikhail Ognev / Fontanka.ru
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The Korean automaker Hyundai is close to selling its Russian business. If the deal is completed, car production at the St. Petersburg plant may be resumed before the end of the year. Fontanka names the likely buyer and his Chinese partner.
Information that Korean Hyundai Motors is close to selling its Russian business recently appeared in the Avtopotok telegram channel. It was reported that the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus plant in St. Petersburg is being purchased by AGR, a company related to the Avilon car dealer. “The completion of the transaction will be announced in the coming days,” the post noted.
The press service of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus neither confirmed nor denied the information. SPARK still lists Hyundai Motor Company (69.99%) and KIA CORPORATION (30%) as owners. However, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, on August 22, changes were made to the constituent documents. The press service did not comment on the essence of these changes.
Structures close to Avilon are indeed negotiating the purchase of Hyundai’s production assets, but the signing has not yet taken place, a source familiar with the situation told Fontanka. If an agreement is reached, the St. Petersburg plant could be restarted this year. Fontanka’s sources also know that the Russian buyer will have a Chinese partner who is no stranger to the seller. And the plant will produce models with a technological cycle similar to those that were produced there under Korean owners.
We are probably talking about Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., a joint venture between China’s BAIC Motor and Hyundai Motor Company. Founded in 2002, the company produces Hyundai cars for the Chinese market in China. The lineup includes Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Lafesta, Hyundai ix35, Hyundai Tucson and several others. “The Koreans want not to leave when they leave and to do everything so that they can return immediately as soon as the opportunity arises,” one of Fontanka’s interlocutors commented on the choice of partner. This can be evidenced by the fact that the company continues to pay workers for downtime, and has not cut them, like Toyota, he notes.
Fontanka sent a request to the Avilon press service, but they offered to forward questions about the deal with Hyundai to AGR. This structure, close to the dealer company, previously became the owner of the Volkswagen plant in Kaluga. Previously, the media called it one of the contenders for the purchase of the Hyundai plant. The second contender was then called the Kaliningrad Avtotor plant, which had previously launched the assembly of BAIC cars.
The Fontanka correspondent managed to get through to the main owner of AGR, Andrei Pavlovich, but he, upon learning that a journalist was calling him, hung up. The entrepreneur did not answer the question about the upcoming deal and Beijing Hyundai Motor Co.’s participation in it, sent via messenger. However, when trying to contact both Andrei Pavlovich and AGR Director Artem Kursakov, the answering machine message about the subscriber’s unavailability was in Chinese.
The Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, Kirill Polyakov, in an interview with Fontanka, confirmed that negotiations are currently underway between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the Hyundai company on the resumption and development of automobile production in St. Petersburg. But he did not disclose the name of the possible buyer.
The Hyundai automobile plant in St. Petersburg was launched in 2010, its capacity was more than 200 thousand cars per year. It produced the Hyundai Solaris, Hyundai Creta, KIA Rio and KIA Rio X-Line models. In March 2022, the plant stopped production due to problems with the supply of components. The related production of Hyundai WIA engines also went into downtime. Before this, the enterprises laid off more than two-thirds of their employees.
The Hyundai plant later resumed operations on a limited basis to produce components to service sold vehicles and produce vehicles for foreign markets.
At the beginning of 2023, the authorities of St. Petersburg announced that they were negotiating with an investor from Kazakhstan, Astana Motors, planning to resume production of the same cars that were produced at the enterprise until the spring of 2022.
The site in Shushary, which Hyundai had previously bought from General Motors, but never had time to start producing cars there, was rented by the government of St. Petersburg for five years. It was reported that an educational center would open there.
Galina Boyarkova,
“Fontanka.ru”
Photo: Mikhail Ognev / Fontanka.ru
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