OREANDA-NEWS. June 21, 2010. The EBRD has completed the acquisition of a four percent equity stake in Russia’s largest truck-maker, Kamaz, as part a long-term strategic plan agreed with the company’s main shareholders and management to restructure one of the most complex industrial legacies of the Soviet era, reported the press-centre of EBRD.     

The EBRD’s investment, made in close coordination with Daimler AG, brings the combined stake held by the two partners at this stage to 15 percent. The EBRD stake was bought from Troika Dialog, a leading Russian investment bank.

Kamaz has been an EBRD client since 1995 when the Bank advanced an emergency loan of USD100 million to the truck-maker after a fire destroyed its engine plant.

This is an historic chance to show the investment community how one of the industrial giants Russia inherited from Soviet times can partner with a strategic investor to modernise its products, save energy and promote environmental sustainability, Alain Pilloux, the EBRD’s Managing Director for Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness, said.

This is precisely why the EBRD is today joining forces with Daimler, Russian Technologies, Troika Dialog and Kamaz, Mr. Pilloux addded.

To fix their common goals, the EBRD and its new partners are signing a detailed shareholder agreement mapping out Kamaz’s development strategy.