Sberbank and GAZ Group, a part of Basic Element, Russia’s largest diversified industrial holding, signed a general agreement on cooperation in foreign markets. The signing of the agreement took place during the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. The agreement was signed by Sberbank’s Deputy Chairman Sergey Gorkov and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC GAZ Siegfried Wolf.
Sberbank and GAZ Group sign a general agreement on cooperation in foreign markets. The agreement envisages interaction of the parties with regards to funding of export sales of vehicles, leasing and factoring operations and providing special credit programs for foreign end customers.
Expanding its presence in the export markets is one of the key areas of GAZ Group development. The company’s flagship product GAZelle Next has received an EU whole vehicle type approval, the vehicle is currently produced in Turkey, preparation for GAZ LCV’s sales has launched in the Balkan countries, bus products have been certified for compliance with international requirements. Currently the company is negotiating with potential partners with regards to setting up distribution of its vehicles in more than 30 countries all over the world.
Siegfried Wolf, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC GAZ:
Today GAZ Group has products that can successfully compete in export markets. We are confident that cooperation with such a big and reliable partner as Sberbank will allow us to use state-of-the-art and effective financial instruments and offer attractive terms of vehicle purchase to foreign customers.
Sergey Gorkov, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank:
Currently Sberbank is represented in most of the CIS countries, Central and Easter Europe and in Turkey. The geography of our presence matches the prospective export markets of GAZ Group. More notably, in Turkey with an active support from DenizBank, a Sberbank Group subsidiary, GAZ Group was able not just to successfully launch the new GAZ model GAZelle Next in the local market, but also set up assembly operations, established an efficient dealer network and rolled out a new discounted crediting program for vehicle buyers. We see support of Russian engineering industry as one of Sberbank’s strategic goals, we believe in the success of GAZ Group and are ready to provide comprehensive support in launching GAZelle Next and other GAZ vehicles in new export markets where Sberbank already has a well-established reputation.
