MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - The Franconian industrial and automotive supplier Schaeffler may sell its Russian plant to a holding company owned by its Austrian supervisory board member Siegfried Wolf. In a statement released on Monday, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin approved the acquisition of the site in Ulyanovsk on the Volga by PromAvtoConsult.

Schaeffler, which is headquartered in Herzogenaurach, reported its intention to sell the plant in Russia in March - around a year after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. At that time, however, approval from the Kremlin was still pending.

The plant in question is a small Schaeffler plant with 150 employees. The purchase price was stated at ten million euros in Schaeffler's annual report. Investor Wolf informed "Der Spiegel" at the time that the transaction had been comprehensively examined. The conclusion had been reached that it was "in line with applicable US and EU sanctions law." /haw/DP/nas