The owners of Birmingham-based van maker LDV has announced a major investment in a specialist European diesel engine design and manufacturer.
GAZ Group, Russia’s leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles, has bought a 50 per cent stake in VM Motori, alongside General Motors Corporation.
The Italian-based company currently supplies LDV with the latest hi-tech diesel engines for its MAXUS range, along with other international brands including Chrysler and Jeep.
As part of the agreement GAZ Group will produce the hi-tech VM Motori engines under licence for the MAXUS range and have more control over the transfer from the production line to the LDV site in Birmingham.
GAZ Group’s chief executive, Sergey Zanozin, said: “Having more control of the production and supply of the diesel engines for the MAXUS range of light commercial vehicles, will help the company achieve key strategic goals.GAZ Group intends to provide a complete range of diesel engines to meet existing and future customer and environmental requirements for its global markets.”
LDV’s chief executive, Evgeniy Vereshchagin, said: “This significant investment by the group will give LDV greater access to a wide range of state-of-the-art diesel engines.It’s an exciting development and allows the company increased flexibility and input in developing future engines for the MAXUS range.”
For further information on the MAXUS range visit www.maxus.com
Notes to editors:
About LDV: LDV Group is the only dedicated light commercial vehicle manufacturer in the UK, producing the award winning MAXUS range of light commercial vehicles. Based in Birmingham and employing approximately 1,000 people, LDV became a wholly owned subsidiary of GAZ International, part of the GAZ Group in July 2006. More information can be found at www.MAXUS.com
About GAZ Group: GAZ Group holds leading positions on the Russian market of commercial vehicles with a diversified product portfolio including a wide range of light commercial vehicles, trucks, buses, construction equipment, cars, power train and its components. It operates 18 large production facilities in Russia and the UK. GAZ Group consolidated revenue in 2007 was just under USD $6.0 billion. GAZ Group is a publicly traded company at the Russian Stock Exchange (ticker: GAZA) and has a majority shareholder OJSC “Russian Machines”, a subsidiary of Basic Element Co.
About VM Motori: VM Motori is a diesel engine engineering and manufacturing organization based in Cento Italy. It currently has 1,200 employees producing seven automotive and marine engine families for customers around the world. More information can be found at www.vmmotori.it
Further information on the joint venture with GM can be found at http://eng.gazgroup.ru/news
