Company type | Closed joint-stock company |
---|---|
Industry | Diversified |
Founded | 1994 |
Defunct | 2011 |
Headquarters | , Russia |
Website | www.sok.ru |
The SOK Group ( Russian: Группа «СОК») was a Russian holding company established in 1994 and based in Samara, Russia. [1] Yuri Kachmazov was the group's president. [2]
The name SOK was originally an acronym for 'Samara Window Company'. [3]
The SOK Group started in 1994 as an AvtoVAZ dealership, growing to become one of the main automotive companies in Russia. [4] SOK managed to gain control of RosLada, an automotive plant that had been established in 1998 on the grounds of the former Luch Design Bureau in Syzran, [5] and used it to produce old AvtoVAZ models. [6]
In 1999 the ownership of the Izhmash-Avto plant in Izhevsk, which produced old AvtoVAZ models under the Izh brand, was transferred to the group. [7] SOK also included over 40 other factories, mostly in the automotive component business, and employed over 100,000 workers. [6]
Revenues grew from $19 million in 1999 to close to $200 million in 2002. [4] It was the second largest passenger car producer in Russia after AvtoVAZ, with production totaling 121,172 cars in 2002. [6] In August 2003 VAZInterService became part of the group. [8]
By 2004 the group had $2 billion in revenues and supplied 37%-50% of all AvtoVAZ accessories; AvtoVAZ could not withdraw from such cooperation agreements without paying SOK $492 million in penalties.[ citation needed] In October 2005 SOK reportedly owned over 60% of AvtoVAZ shares, and ousted Vladimir Kadannikov, the company's chairman. [9]
SOK group attempted to gain control of AvtoVAZ, which was instead gained by the state-owned Rostec corporation. The Rostec-appointed AvtoVAZ management began to phase out or rescind supply contracts between SOK and AvtoVAZ. [10]
In 2008, SOK began negotiations to sell the IzhAvto plant to AvtoVAZ. [11] In 2009 the group was forced to sell its automotive components holdings to AvtoVAZ, after SOK had disrupted the schedule of deliveries to the company. [12] The components business ultimately came under control of Rostec as the United Automotive Technologies group. [10] In 2010 the president of the group, wanted over allegations of fraudulent conveyance during the IzhAvto bankruptcy of 2009, escaped to the United Arab Emirates. [11] The group's last assets were sold in January 2013. [13]
Car models produced by the group: [14]
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