Renault says has no plans to raise AvtoVAZ stake
FLINS, France (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault SA (RENA.PA) has no plans to change it stake in AvtoVAZ AOA (AVAZ.MM) even though Russia wants it to play a bigger role to save the maker of Lada cars, the country's main car brand.
"We have no plan to raise our reduce our stake," Renault chief executive Carlos Ghosn said at the sidelines of the signing of an agreement for the manufacture of batteries for electrical vehicles with CEA Industries and the FSI state fund.
"We have a pact and we will respect it," he said.
Russia and Renault have been in talks over the past few months as AvtoVAZ needs cash urgently and has thousands of employees for which there is no real current need.
But after the decision by U.S. carmaker General Motors GM.UL not to sell Opel/Vauxhall to Canadian parts maker Magna (MGa.TO) and Russia's Sberbank Rossii OAO (SBER03.MM), the Russian government seems to have become less demanding of Renault.
AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest carmaker, has been hammered by tumbling sales in the worst recession since the mid 1990s.
Renault has a 25 percent stake and has said it is willing to help AvtoVAZ implement a business plan which will see it making new models based on the popular Logan and Sandero low-cost models of Renault's Dacia unit.
Ghosn is also chief executive at Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T), in which Renault has a 44 percent stake.
The alliance of Renault, Nissan and AvtoVAZ is the world's third-largest car group behind Japanese Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and GM.
On Wednesday, a Russian government source said Russia could allow Renault to buy control of AvtoVAZ as part of a plan to save the ailing carmaker.
The Russian government and brokerage Troika Dialog own 25 percent each. Renault said its contribution to the restructuring would be through technology, equipment, know-how and platforms.
AvtoVAZ wants to cut a quarter of its workforce in Togliatti -- a city on the river Volga that only exists for the plant's workers -- to cope with plummeting sales and heavy debts.
The Kremlin has been reluctant to allow the firm to proceed with job cuts fearing they could lead to mass unrest that would hit support for the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Putin has called on Renault to commit money or see its stake in AvtoVAZ diluted. On Tuesday, he said AvtoVAZ's shareholders, both Russian and foreign, should come up with an adequate development program.
Putin said this week the government would help AvtoVAZ settle debts and could raise $2 billion on the market to support it. The government source told Reuters some 43 billion roubles ($1.47 billion) would come directly from the federal budget.
AvtoVAZ has warned of bankruptcy after experiencing a 44 percent fall in car sales since the beginning of the year while grappling with debt of some 60 billion roubles.
(Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexei Kalmykov in Moscow; Writing by Marcel Michelson; Editing by Dan Lalor)
($1 = 29.23 roubles)
