PARIS — French carmaker Renault announced Monday that it will sell all of its Russian activities to entities controled by the Russian government.
The company's Russian subsidiary will be sold to the city of Moscow, while its shares in AvtoVaz, which makes Lada cars, will be sold to the state-owned research organization NAMI, Renault said in a statement.
The sale agreement has been unanimously approved by Renault's board of directors and doesn't require any further authorizations, the company added.
The deal also includes an option for Renault to buy back its stakes in AvtoVaz within the next six years.
"Today, we have taken a difficult but necessary decision; and we are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia, while preserving the Group's performance and our ability to return to the country in the future, in a different context," Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo said in the statement.
The company suspended car production at its Moscow plant at the end of March after it faced heavy criticism — including from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — for not pulling out of Russia.
Renault gave no information about the value of the sale, but the Russian government previously said that shares in AvtoVaz would be sold for a symbolic price of 1 rouble. The French state has a 15 percent stake in Renault.
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