AvtoVAZ car maker may redeem $2.6 bln debt to government

Russia's biggest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, plans by 2020 to repay 75 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) in interest-free loans granted by the government in 2009-2010, AvtoVAZ President Igor Komarov said on Monday. "The government has provided support worth of 75 billion rubles to AvtoVAZ. Seventeen billion rubles will be converted into AvtoVAZ equity during an additional issue to be completed this year. We redeemed part of the debt amounting to about 2.5 billion rubles by a transfer of several assets," Komarov told an online news conference at Gazeta.ru. AvtoVAZ plans to convert up to 40 billion rubles in the new shares, he added. The company expects to repay 25 billion rubles by 2019. "The remaining sum is to be redeemed or converted in shares in the next three years," said Komarov. Currently, Troika Dialog investment house, the Renault-Nissan alliance and hi-tech conglomerate Russian Technologies each hold 25 percent of AvtoVAZ. Following two steps of AvtoVAZ's additional issue the share of state-owned Russian Technologies will increase to 36.5 percent.