German industrial robot manufacturer KUKA abandons its assets in Russia

German industrial robot manufacturer KUKA Robotics, which is owned by the Chinese company Midea, has abandoned its Russian assets. They didn't have to look far for partners - an agreement on the transfer of assets was concluded with its Russian "daughter", Kuka Robotics LLC.

Now Kuka Robotics is called Industrial Robotics LLC, and its CEO is Petr Smolentsev, former Commercial Director of Kuka Robotics. He owns 95% of the company, while the remaining 5% is owned by CFO Sergei Katkov. It is unknown on what terms the assets were transferred and whether the German side has the opportunity to buy them back - the details of the agreement are not disclosed.

Industrial Robotics assures that it will continue to operate while maintaining existing business processes and fulfilling obligations to customers and buyers for KUKA service. This is more than 4.3 thousand robots - or every third industrial robot in Russia and the CIS countries. The exchange of experience with China will also continue - KUKA production is located there under the auspices of its Chinese parent manufacturer of household appliances Midea.

On the Russian market, KUKA presents dozens of products of varying complexity and application: from high-speed palletizing robots, robots for spot welding, painting and measuring landing performance to multi-tasking robots in an assembly kit with adaptive software. In particular, KUKA is actively used by Russian automotive giants - AvtoVAZ and KamAZ.