Russian media quoted by Autonews points to plans Russian technologies has to form a new automotive holding which will engulf AvtoVAZ and KaMAZ. An involvement with Magna's bid for German brand Opel is also on the table, as hinted a few months ago.
The Russian carmaker, equally owned by Russian Technologies, Troika Dialog Investment and Renault, was severely struck by the economic recession and the collapse of the Russian automotive sector. Analyst predict a 50-60 percent negative performance for the whole year. For the first half of the year, the Russian automotive sector has registered a painful decrease of 62 percent. AvtoVAz put production on halt for August, after a similar move which they was forced to make in January.
In early April, the manufacturer received up to 8 billion rubles ($239.5 million) in loans from two state-controlled lenders, Sberbank and VTB. That amount slowly increased to 33 billion rubles ($1 billion), until last month the carmaker announced it has spent it all, mainly to honor debts to its suppliers.
Recently, more than 2,000 workers demonstrated against pay and production cuts. They also requested the Russian government to take over the automaker and begin an investigation concerning alleged misuse of funds by the company's management. Some of their pleas seem to have been listened, as the company's current president is being replaced.
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