Siemens sells its stake in Ural Locomotives

Siemens Mobility sold its stake in Ural Locomotives for 2.157 billion rubles, the buyer was a hitherto unknown joint-stock company Otavit, Izvestia learned. The government commission approved the deal at a meeting on April 3, according to the minutes of its meeting.

This is the last asset that this German company has left in Russia. She finally left the country.

The Ural Locomotives joint venture was established in 2010 by the Sinara Group (51%) and the Siemens AG concern (49%). It is located in the city of Verkhnyaya Pyshma, 7 km north of Yekaterinburg. The joint venture, among other things, was engaged in the production of passenger high-speed electric trains under the commercial name Lastochka, created on the Siemens Desiro platform for Russian Railways.

According to SPARK, the formal 100% owner of Ural Locomotives is now Urals Locomotives Holding B.V. It is its 100 thousand shares that Otavit buys, according to the documents of the Board of Directors. Siemens will not receive 35% of this amount, which the Russian company will transfer to the country's treasury, according to the law, this is a contribution from a foreign company for exiting an asset.

Siemens Mobility confirmed to Izvestia that the deal has already taken place and the company has left the Russian Federation, as it announced back in 2022.

"Siemens Mobility has sold its minority stake in the Russian joint venture UL (Ural Locomotives. — Izvestia) in accordance with the current EU sanctions and is no longer involved in the joint venture. The deal is in line with Siemens AG's decision to withdraw completely from the Russian market. It was decided not to provide any additional details about the deal," the company noted.

"Otavit" has not actually been heard in Russian business so far. This is not surprising, because the joint-stock company was registered in Moscow only in June 2024 with the profile "consulting on commercial activities," according to SPARK.

Siemens has been operating in Russia since 1852. In addition to Ural Locomotives, the Germans in Russia had joint ventures with other domestic companies. Among them is a joint venture with Power Machines, LLC Power Technologies of Gas Turbines (LLC STGT, engaged in the production and maintenance of gas turbines), 65% of which was acquired by Inter RAO in 2022. Its Dutch structure, RAO Intertech B.V.— bought the Voronezh plant of Siemens Energy ― Voronezh Transformer LLC (formerly Siemens Energetika Transformers LLC, which was part of the Siemens Energy division). The sum of these two transactions was estimated at €25 million.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Full steam ahead: Siemens sells stake in Ural Locomotives