The ailing Russian automaker AvtoVaz, known by its Lada brand of small cheap cars, should be sold for $1 to Renault, the head of Russia's largest auto importer told a German newspaper on Sunday.
"One should sell the Lada maker for $1 to Renault. A takeover like that would be a blessing. Old factories were sold for one Mark in East Germany - why should the factories in Russia cost billions?" Sergey Petrov told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.
A parliamentary member of the Duma, Petrov founded Rolf Co. in 1991, which competes directly with Lada and its French ally Renault.
The company generated revenue of about $4.6 billion before the crisis through the import and sale of nine different auto brands including Peugeot partner Mitsubishi.
AvtoVaz, Russia's largest carmaker, received over $1 billion in state bailout funds to stay afloat. It made 294,737 Lada cars and 43,047 assembly kits last year, down from output of 920,000 in 2008.
Petrov said the chance that foreign carmakers takeover Russian plants like the massive AvtoVaz site in Togliatti, where a quarter of the 100,000 jobs were cut last year, did not suffice to reform the domestic industry.
"If Renault, which holds a blocking minority, were to acquire 100 percent of AvtoVaz, then it would confront a trade union that is actually state-controlled and could destroy the company. We lack institutions that can ensure the most competitive survives," he explained.
