(Reuters) – Russian state conglomerate Rostec is in talks with Germany’s Mercedes-Benz over acquiring the carmaker’s stake in truckmaker Kamaz, the TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, citing Rostec head Sergey Chemezov.
Rostec is already Kamaz’s largest shareholder, with 49.9% of shares, according to Kamaz’s website. Mercedes-Benz, formerly Daimler AG, holds 15%. The remaining 20.81% are held by Cyprus-registered company Avtoinvest.
Mercedes-Benz did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Chemezov’s statement. Avtoinvest could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mercedes-Benz AG, which at the time was Daimler AG, took over a 15% stake in Kamaz from Daimler Truck in September 2021 with a view to returning it to Daimler Truck after the truckmaker was spun off from the carmaker in December last year.
After the spin-off, Daimler AG was renamed Mercedes-Benz AG.
However, approval was needed from Russian regulators, as well as Kamaz’s other shareholders, before the share could be returned to Daimler Truck, its CEO Martin Daum said in late March.
The company was not in talks with officials on the topic, he said at the time. A spokesperson declined to comment on whether Daimler Truck had purposefully put talks on hold because of tension with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Like many other companies, Daimler Truck froze its business in Russia in February following Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, suspending its joint venture with Kamaz, which produces trucks, buses and Mercedes-Benz passenger cars.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Jan Harvey, Christoph Steitz and Barbara Lewis)
