The Franconian industrial and automotive supplier Schaeffler is allowed to sell his Russian factory to a holding company owned by his Austrian supervisory board member Siegfried Wolf (66). In a statement published on Monday, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin (71) approved the acquisition of the site in Ulyanovsk on the Volga by PromAvtoConsult.
Schaeffler, whose headquarters is in Herzogenaurach, reported its intentions to sell the plant in Russia in March – around a year after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. At that time, however, approval from the Kremlin was still pending. It is therefore a small Schaeffler factory with 150 employees. The purchase price was stated in the Schaeffler annual report as ten million euros.
At the time’s request, investor Wolf told SPIEGEL that the transaction had been thoroughly examined. The conclusion was reached that it was “in line with applicable US and EU sanctions law”.