OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2008. VTB Bank is extending its cooperation with priority industries of the Russian economy. In particular, it is actively financing the automotive industry.

According to the agreement with VTB Bank, SOLLERS Group is to receive a one-year facility worth RUB 4 billion to replenish its floating capital, reported the press-centre of VTB Bank.

Active cooperation between VTB and Sollers Group started in 2005 under the SsangYong project. The Bank provided import letters of credit to OJSC SOLLERS Naberezhnye Chelny (previously known as OJSC ZMA) for supplying SsangYong Rexton, Kyron and Actyon car assemblies.

Today, SOLLERS Group enjoys a documentary credit limit of RUB 12 billion, under which, over the nine months of 2008, the Bank issued more than 25 unsecured import letters of credit exceeding USD 212 million . Moreover, since July, the Bank and SOLLERS Group have been carrying out loan transactions up to RUB 1 billion for a 3 to 6 month term.

VTB’s target is to further enhance financial support to the real economy. The total volume of documentary credit limits set for automotive companies, regarded by the Bank as a priority business line, currently exceeds USD 3.5 billion.

For reference:
SOLLERS Group (known before 2008 as Severstal-Auto Group), founded in 2002, is an automotive holding offering a full range of services in automotive industry from car manufacturing to sales and service maintenance.

The Group owns controlling interests in OJSC Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (UAZ), OJSC Zavolzhsky Motorny Zavod (ZMZ), OJSC SOLLERS Naberezhnye Chelny, OJSC SOLLERS Elabuga and SOLLERS-ISUZU, manufacturing Russian UAZ off-roadsters, Korean SsangYong, FIAT motorcars and commercial vehicles, Japanese ISUZU trucks, and ZMZ gasoline and diesel engines.

Since its outset, the company has introduced more than a dozen new products, set up production facilities with a capacity of around 300 thousand cars per year. OJSC SOLLERS annual turnover exceeds USD 1.9 billion, and its net profit for 2007 under IFRS amounted to USD 102 million.