The GAZ group’s petition for the arrest of almost all Volkswagen properties in Russia was satisfied by the Nizhny Novgorod Region Arbitration Court on March 20, according to the website of the materials archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Court of Arbitration. Novgorod. Region.
The GAZ group, owned by Oleg Deripaska, filed a petition to recover almost 15.6 billion rubles from the German company. losses. Due to this lawsuit, negotiations on the sale of the Volkswagen Automobile Plant in Kaluga will be delayed.
“We hope the lawsuit will not delay a settlement that is intended to keep affected employees employed.”said the Volkswagen representative.
Evgeny Zubkov, a lawyer at Forward Legal, said that after the seizure of Volkswagen’s Russian assets, the sale of the plant in Kaluga became much more difficult.
If the claim of the GAZ group is satisfied, the property of the company can be sold at auction and the money will be distributed among all creditors in accordance with the order established by the bankruptcy law.
If the concern had carried out its plans to leave Russia, there would have been no one to recover the losses from.
The GAZ group’s lawsuit against Volkswagen arose due to the German company’s termination of the May 2017 contract on the contract assembly of cars at the GAZ plant in Nizhny Novgorod.
The agreement was valid until the end of 2025, but in March last year, Volkswagen announced its decision to suspend work in Russia and in August terminated the contract with the GAZ group.
“We are surprised to receive a lawsuit from GAZ at this particular stage, given that we have had good business relations over the years and our partnership ended on mutually agreed terms in mid-2022.”added a Volkswagen representative.
The press service of the GAZ group noted that the company is not interested in the assets of Volkswagen. It has its own facilities and personnel for the production of passenger cars in Nizhny Novgorod, the company needs to ensure its cargo.
Recall that the Avilon concern intends to resume the assembly of Volkswagen cars under the Jetta brand from kits of Chinese cars in the Kaluga region. This method of operation will not require a structural re-equipment of the company.
The launch of cars under the Jetta brand should protect Volkswagen from sanctions. Avilon has established a direct channel for the supply of machines from China via Kazakhstan in partnership with a Chinese exporter.
It should be noted that on February 20, the governor of the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, said that 2023 should be “point of return” at the automakers reboot. To maintain the stability of the region’s economy in 2022, regional authorities helped companies establish cooperative ties, import substitution, and improved logistics.
The region reduced tax revenues to Russia’s consolidated budget by 22.2 billion rubles. 18 companies in the automotive cluster are in total or partial inactive mode.
We also remind that Volkswagen suspended car assembly in Russia from March 3, 2022 due to the situation in Ukraine. The press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Industry of the region reported that mass layoffs of workers of idle auto plants in the Kaluga region are not planned.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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