Translated material
Continental on Taganka
The Moscow tire plant may fall under German control
The German company Continental AG, known in Russia as a manufacturer of Gislaved and Barum tires, officially announced yesterday its intention to acquire a controlling stake in the Moscow Tire Plant. The corresponding memorandum was signed recently in Hannover (Germany). This was reported to the Vremya Novostei newspaper by the representative office of Continental. It is expected that the purchase of shares will occur in several stages.It is expected that the German side will invest about $43 million in the modernization of the Moscow enterprise over three years. As a result, the annual production of Taganka tires at the Moscow Tire Plant should increase from 2 million to 5 million units.
Other details of the expected transaction have not yet been disclosed. At the same time, it is known that supplies of tires from the Czech division of Continental will continue to Russia.
Continental is one of the largest importers of tires for foreign cars in Russia. In addition, last year the company supplied VAZ with 300 thousand tires for the original equipment of cars. We are talking, in particular, about “tens”.
Continental's main competitors in the Russian market are considered to be the Japanese Bridgestone and the Finnish Nokia. However, today they are still far from organizing their production in Russia.