Nick Carey

LONDON, (Reuters) – Mercedes-Benz’s assets are worth 2 billion euros ($2.2Billion) and could be under threat from Russian plans to nationalize foreign companies that flee Ukraine. The German premium carmaker stated.

According to the annual report that was released by the company on Friday, there are a variety of risk from interruptions to electricity supply and cyber attacks.

Mercedes-Benz stated that these risks may be increased by expropriation potential assets Russian subsidiaries.

Russia’s ruling party United Russia said that this week, a government commission approved the first step toward nationalizing the assets of foreigners from “unfriendly” states.

Mercedes-Benz owns a car plant located in Esipovo (40 km/25 mi) northwest from Moscow. This facility employs more than 1,000 people.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin was present at the opening of the plant in April 2019. The plant was Russia’s first to be open by an outside carmaker since years ago, as investment in Russia’s once-burgeoning automotive industry had dwindled due to western sanctions and a slowing economy.

Putin stated at the opening ceremony that the plant would manufacture 25,000 cars per year, and that it had received just below $300 million in investment.

Mercedes-Benz announced that Russian units valued at approximately 2 billion euros by the end 2021 have liability to banks in the amount of around 1 billion euros. For this reason, the company issued a global guarantee.

($1 = 0.9086 euros)