Schaeffler plans to sell Russia business to Austrian businessman

BERLIN (Reuters) - German auto supplier Schaeffler plans to sell its Russia business to its supervisory board member, the Austrian businessman Siegfried Wolf, a company spokesperson said on Friday.

Schaeffler signed a contract on Dec. 29, 2022 to sell its Russian operations to a business called PromAvtoConsult LLC for 10 million euros ($10.60 million), according to its annual report, published on Tuesday.

It was contractually agreed that the shares would first be transferred to a company controlled by a member of the supervisory board, the report said.

Schaeffler confirmed that the board member in question was Wolf.

Spiegel news magazine reported on Friday that PromAvtoConsult's chief executive Roman Vovk told an economic advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin that Schaeffler's parts could be used in vehicles of Russia's sanctioned commercial vehicle manufacturer GAZ Group, including models used for military transport.

Asked about the Spiegel report, a person close to Schaeffler told Reuters that by ensuring the shares were transferred to a non-Russian, such scenario would be averted and the sanctions against GAZ would hold.

($1 = 0.9438 euros)

(Reporting by Christina Amann, Writing by Rachel More and Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)