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AvtoVAZ Bends to FIAT
Russia’s automobile giant AvtoVAZ and FIAT Consortium will seal today a strategic partnership memorandum and may ink an agreement in a few months. FIAT is more willing to make concessions than Renault; for this automobile blockbuster to conquer aftereffects of the recent crisis is vital.
AvtoVAZ Group President Boris Aleshin is due to meet FIAT CEO Sergio Marchionne today to seal a strategic partnership memorandum, said a source close to AvtoVAZ. “The document provides no specific details, it just spells out the principal agreement to consider partnership,” the source said, pointing out that “the chance that exactly FIAT will be AvtoVAZ partner has increased several fold.”
AvtoVAZ has been in talks with another potential partner, France’s Renault, for around two years, but no memorandum of this kind has been ever concluded. In AvtoVAZ, they confirmed the forthcoming meeting of Aleshin and Marchionne, but specified that the negotiations with Renault will go on.
The source said the memorandum will enable AvtoVAZ and FIAT to get access to internal files of each other and that the parties will decide on partnership after studying the documents.
FIAT is “the most promising partner for AvtoVAZ,” AvtoVAZ Group Vice President Maxim Nagaitsev announced past week. “The Italians don't oppose retaining the Lada brand on new models. Besides, they have no aggressive plans for us,” the top manager explained.
As to Renault, a source at AvtoVAZ said, it is ready to share technology only in exchange for the majority stake in AvtoVAZ. But the standing of AvtoVAZ leadership is that a foreign partner won’t have more than a block stake in the works.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 15, 2007
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