OREANDA-NEWS. January 18, 2010. According to AEB data, sales of new passenger cars in Russia in 2009 fell by 49% to 1.46m. The brand name with the highest sales volume was Lada (349,490 units), though its sales were off by 44% YoY. Meanwhile, sales of KIA brand (7th place on the domestic market in terms of sales volume) exhibited only a 20% YoY decrease, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE FC.

View: Lada remains the most popular car brand in Russia due to its low price. From our standpoint, the emerging economic recovery could trigger a revival of demand for international brand names produced in Russia, and the sluggish YoY decrease in the sales of KIA brand only confirms our opinion. We expect that the demand for such names could revive in 2H10.

Valuation and Action: We read this news as marginally positive for AVTOVAZ stock. At present, we have assigned neither a target price nor a rating for the stock.