An unnamed Russian company has agreed to purchase Hyundai’s production facility in St. Petersburg which has been lying dormant since early 2022.
While it is unclear how much the factory is trading hands for, Russian news outlets indicate that the deal includes a two-year option for Hyundai to repurchase the facility should it wish. The buyback option is similar to the buyback options that both Renault and Nissan have for their Russian operations after they too were sold last year.
“We have already formed all decisions on Hyundai’s acquisition… A local company will be the purchaser,” Russia’s deputy prime minister and industry and trade minister Denis Manturov said of the deal, reports The Korea Times. “As far as Hyundai is concerned, it plans a (buyback) option, though considering the president’s decree, it is limited to two years.”
Read: Hyundai May Soon Sell Russian Factories As It Finally Exits The Country
The factory has enough capacity to support the production of up to 200,000 vehicles per year. Prior to operations being suspended in March of 2022, it was responsible for building the Hyundai Solaris, Hyundai Creta, Kia Rio, and Kia Rio X-Line. The plant was home to 2,600 employees at its peak.
Prior to the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022, Russia had been an important market for Hyundai and its sister company Kia, In fact, the two sold a combined 400,000 vehicles in Russia back in 2019 and in 2021, Hyundai and Kia had a 22.5% share of Russia’s total vehicle market.
Recent sales figures from Russia reveal that new car sales across the country fell by some 58.8% last year as the conflict grew. In total, 687,730 vehicles were sold in Russia across 2022, significantly fewer than the 1.6 million that were delivered in 2021.