Assets of auto components manufacturer Faurecia in Russia can be bought by Russian top managers
[ad_1]
As Kommersant found out, the assets of a large auto components manufacturer Faurecia in Russia can be bought by Russian top managers, they have already registered a new company for this. Faurecia plans to leave the Russian Federation became known at the beginning of 2023: the company referred, among other things, to the cessation of work of foreign automakers. At the same time, unlike other foreign manufacturers of components, such as Magna, Faurecia in Togliatti still has a customer in the person of AvtoVAZ. Magna, we recall, sold its business in the Russian Federation for $15 million.
Top managers of the Russian Faurecia at the end of June created the Format Invest company – as Kommersant’s interlocutors say, with its help they intend to buy the assets of the French group and restart them. According to SPARK, Tatyana Gromova, the CEO of five Faurecia structures in Russia, and Olivier Grinenberger, the operating director of Faurecia in Russia, each have 35% in this company, the remaining shares are 6% each, including the directors of sites in Togliatti Nikolai Afanasyev and Marina Davydenko, as well as the director of sales, programs and engineering Alexander Gorin.
Kommersant sent a request to Faurecia, and also asked questions to the CEO of a part of the Russian legal entities of Faurecia and the co-founder of Format Invest, Tatyana Gromova, but did not receive any comments.
Faurecia, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of interiors and exhaust systems, has decided to leave the Russian Federation at the beginning of 2023. In 2022, the group, as a result of a merger with Hella (specializes in electronics), became known as Forvia. In the company’s report for 2022, it was reported that the group’s activity in the Russian Federation was “very limited” – 0.4% of total sales in 2022 against 1.4% a year earlier. “Due to the war, the decisions of automakers regarding their work in the Russian Federation, as well as the uncertain and difficult situation, Faurecia decided to withdraw from the Russian Federation and depreciate assets associated with the country in 2022,” the report said. The costs associated with the termination of operations in the Russian Federation at the end of 2022 amounted to €130.3 million, of which €103.9 million were reorganization expenses and €26.4 million were other expenses. The press release also reported that one-time costs associated with the decision to leave the Russian Federation (mainly asset impairment) are estimated at €143 million.
The main buyers of the group’s products were the Renault-Nissan AvtoVAZ alliance, as well as Hyundai / Kia and Volkswagen. Of these manufacturers, only AvtoVAZ continues to operate. In the reporting of Faurecia Ecological Solutions for 2022, it was reported that they continue to work on projects with AvtoVAZ and UzAvto (Cobalt, Nexia, Lacetti), and the project completion date is from 2026 to 2032, in connection with which “the state of society appears to management to be sustainable in the long term.” Similar information, but only about AvtoVAZ, is provided in the reports of Faurecia Automotive Solutions with a project completion date from 2030 to 2032. Faurecia Ecological Solutions was also engaged in “development, creation of prototypes and serial production of an exhaust gas treatment system for a KamAZ R6 diesel engine of Euro-5 and higher environmental class”, receiving state support until 2021, follows from the reporting.
The company has six legal entities in the Russian Federation (some of them are under reorganization since 2022). These are Fauresia Interior Luga (Leningrad region), Fauresia Interior Togliatti, Fauresia Automotive Solutions, Fauresia Automotive Development (Kaluga), Fauresia Ecological Solutions and Hella.
Kommersant’s interlocutors note that top management often plans to buy out a company in the Russian Federation and the foreign head office agrees to this, but the deal does not receive approval from the Russian authorities due to the presence of other interested parties in the assets. Given that the activities of Faurecia companies are now concentrated around AvtoVAZ, the domestic company could become a buyer, but, according to a Kommersant source familiar with the situation, the concern itself had no such plans.
As Kommersant wrote on August 11, Magna’s assets similar to Faurecia were sold to E-mobile, an unknown company on the market, which may be associated with the former head of UVZ Oleg Sienko. At the same time, Kommersant’s interlocutors consider the preservation of the top management team to be the key to restarting the company’s work.
It should be noted that after Tatneft bought the tire plant from Nokian, Andrey Pantyukhov returned to the company as CEO. He, before the deal with Tatneft, together with other top managers of Nokian in the Russian Federation, created the Phoenix Partners company, in which Mr. Pantyukhov had 51%, now the company has already been liquidated.
Three of Faurecia’s companies are located in Togliatti, with two of them being sold – Faurecia Interior Togliatti and Faurecia Green Solutions (exhaust systems). The business itself is planned to be moved to a new site in the Togliatti SEZ, where Fauresia Automotive Solutions, launched in 2021, is located (seats, mechanisms for car seats). In the spring, an announcement appeared on Avito about the sale of the Faurecia Interior Togliatti site for 300 million rubles. Until the end of 2021, the company was part of the structure of the Nizhny Novgorod holding Autocomponents and was sold for 1 billion rubles, Samara Review wrote. Kommersant sent a request to Autocomponents about their interest in assets or sites.
Automotive analyst Vladimir Bespalov notes that Faurecia’s assets look interesting, at least considering the continuation of work in Tolyatti and the presence of at least one large client. He adds that in the future, the industry has needs for components and the list of customers can grow.
[ad_2]
Source link
