Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will announce on Thursday the establishment of a joint venture between Russian automaker Sollers and Italy's car giant Fiat, a Russian business daily said on Tuesday.
Accompanied by Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne, Putin will travel on Thursday to Naberezhnye Chelny, the second-largest city in the Russian Volga republic of Tatarstan, where Sollers is headquartered, two federal officials told Vedomosti.
Fiat and Sollers will hold equal stakes in the joint venture. Sollers-Naberezhnye Chelny, which assembles Fiat Albea and Doblo cars as well as SsangYong SUVs, has a capacity of 75,000 cars annually, but does not use it in full, Vedomosti said.
This year, Sollers should start assembling C class Fiat Linea sedan cars. However, it is not known whether other Fiat models will also be assembled, according to Vedomosti.
Vladimir Vidulov, director of the Russian office of JATO Dynamics, a global leader in automotive industry data, told the paper Sollers was lucky to have Fiat as a partner. The Italian carmaker has transformed over the past five years, and was one of the world's strongest producers to have survived the global economic crisis.
Vidulov also said the joint Russian-Italian venture had been propped up by good relations between Putin and his Italian counterpart, Silvio Berlusconi.
Sollers opened a plant in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, on December 29, 2009, and presented last week a new version of the off-road Fiat Ducato.
MOSCOW, February 9 (RIA Novosti)
