The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia announced that it has issued permission to the tire manufacturer Continental to sell its Russian assets, the main one of which is a large plant in Kaluga. The buyer is S8 Capital, the deal is preliminarily estimated at 7-10 billion rubles.
However, the permission of the Russian authorities is not enough, the deal must also be approved by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the US Department of Commerce: Continental believes that the Russian plant has goods that are subject to US export restrictions. It is not yet clear how soon the US will approve the deal.
As a reminder, the Continental plant in Kaluga previously produced tires of three brands – Continental itself, as well as Gislaved and Matador. The plant's capacity is four million tires per year, and the company employs about 1,300 people. Continental announced the suspension of the Russian plant in March last year.
