A company associated with the owner of Stoloto will buy the Continental plant in Kaluga

Continental Global Holding Netherlands BV, which owns a tire plant and distributor in Russia, has signed an agreement with C8 Industrial Assets JSC on the sale of its stake in Continental Tires Rus trading company. About it writes “Kommersant” with reference to the reporting of the distributor.

It is specified that the agreement on the deal was signed back in February, but in March, when the reporting was published, the requirements for closing the deal were not met in full.

According to Kommersant, C8 Industrial Assets JSC is associated with Armen Sargsyan’s S8 Capital. His company develops IT solutions in the financial sector, retail, telecommunications, e-commerce and media, and also owns Stoloto. Sargsyan himself is called a partner of Alexander Varshavsky, who is a co-owner of Avilon, who is buying a Volkswagen plant in Kaluga.

March 8, Continental CEO Nikolai Setzer declaredthat the company will seek a controlled exit from the Russian market. It was clarified that its activities in 2022 were affected by the consequences of hostilities in Ukraine, restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic in China, the ongoing shortage of semiconductors, as well as additional costs of 3.3 billion euros as a result of higher prices for raw materials, energy and logistics.

Setzer added that the company suffered a loss of 850 million euros at the end of the year, in Russia, in particular, as a result of sanctions, assets worth about 87 million euros were depreciated.

Continental has suspended tire production in Kaluga after the start of a special operation in Ukraine. On April 20, 2022, Reuters reported, citing a company statement, that the Kaluga plant had temporarily resumed operations to meet local demand. Then the governor of the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, announced that the plant would resume work on August 1, 2022 in a volume that would satisfy the needs of the market.

The Continental plant in Kaluga was opened in 2013. It produces tires of three brands: Continental, Gislaved and Matador, with a capacity of 3.3 million tires per year.