"Vedomosti": "Who called Putin?"
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently met with Renault's Vice President Christian Esteve to discuss the problems of Russia's ailing auto giant, AvtoVAZ.
The company needs 70 billion roubles ($2.35 billion) to recover, and hopes to receive part of these funds from Renault. The fact that Putin will meet with Esteve became clear on Monday morning, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
Initially, the top managers of Renault, General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota and Ford had planned to meet to discuss the problems that the Russian automobile industry is facing with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. They did meet (see the insert), but Mr Putin later summoned Esteve and the AvtoVAZ managers for another meeting.
"I would like to see all shareholders take an equal part [in efforts to help AvtoVAZ]. I ask our foreign shareholders to speak up on this score," Mr Putin said at a meeting with Esteve.
Mr Putin's concern is really quite logical: The plant's management has requested 70 billion roubles from the government, including 54 billion roubles it needs to repay debts, Interfax reported, citing AvtoVAZ sources. A government official confirmed the data when talking with this newspaper. The plant's liabilities will reach a whopping 83.9 billion roubles, and the government doesn't want to tackle this problem single-handed.
"You can rely on Renault, because we are fully aware of our social responsibility for what's happening at AvtoVAZ," Esteve told Putin.
Renault and Peskov refused to disclose what other promises Esteve made to the Prime Minister.
Two sources close to AvtoVAZ and a government official say Renault has agreed to consider supplying modern technology to AvtoVAZ, in particular Logan platforms, as payment for its share of the additional issue. The additional share issue's value could reach the required 70 billion roubles, a source of Vedomosti noted.
Two of the plant's largest shareholders - Renault and Russian Technologies - will take part in the additional issue in roughly equal shares, while the stake of the third partner, Troika Dialog, will be diluted.
As a government official made clear, the government is unlikely to allocate additional funds to Russian Technologies. The state corporation was already granted 25 billion roubles from the federal budget in the form of an interest-free subsidy for AvtoVAZ last summer.
Russian Technologies will simply convert the plant's debt into shares, while Vnesheconombank will deal with its bank loan debts (approximately 40 billion roubles), a source close to the plant's management explained. The plant will then sell bonds convertible into shares to the state-controlled bank to repay its debts to banks, the newspaper's sources said.
As all of the sources stressed, however, these are only tentative plans that will still be discussed in greater detail. Igor Shuvalov is scheduled to go to Togliatti on Thursday.
Spokesmen for Russian Technologies and Troika Dialog declined to comment on the matter.
Prepared with the assistance of Maxim Tovkailo and Alexei Nepomnyashchy.
Alyona Dagayeva, Yulia Fedorinova
