GAZ Group is looking for a foreign partner to help it overhaul production and boost sales, the Russian carmaker’s president Bo Andersson said.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
He told Bloomberg News that while the company, owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, has a strong customer base and a strong dealer body, “most of our technology is outdated. From a technology base, we need a partner.”
Andersson said GAZ would focus on survival in 2010 as Russia’s largest maker of light commercial vehicles is struggling following a slump in demand.
He added GAZ was still open to discussions with General Motors’ Opel unit after taking part in a failed bid for the unit with local lender OAO Sberbank and Magna International.
GAZ output fell to 90,000 vehicles last year from 285,000 in 2007 and Andersson added he did not think the planned scrappage scheme, due to start in Russia in March, would lift demand as much as similar plans elsewhere.
“The issue in Russia is that the people need funding to purchase vehicles.”
Russia will offer RUB50,000 (US$1,700) vouchers to owners of cars that are 10 years old to buy domestically made or assembled vehicles.
Andersson, a former GM vice president, was appointed president of Nizhny Novgorod-based GAZ in August. He said the carmaker had accumulated $1bn in debt as a result of its purchase of UK van manufacturer LDV and a project to assemble the Chrysler Sebring-based designed Siber sedan.
Talks with banks on restructuring borrowings are ongoing, he said.
