Renault-Nissan Alliance (Alliance) has agreed to form a new joint venture (JV) with Italian bank Unicredit provide loans to vehicle customers and dealers in Russia.
The new JV, which will be 60% owned by the Alliance and 40% by UniCredit, is expected to further strength the Alliance's positioning in the Russian car market over the next decade.
In 2012, Russia sold over 2.9 million new vehicles, of which the Alliance posted 12% market share with sales of 352,808 units, which includes 189,852 units for Renault, 153,747 units for Nissan and 9,209 units for Infiniti.
UniCredit intends to further expand its retail banking activities in the country with the new JV, which is scheduled to start operations by the end of 2013.
Both the Alliance and UniCredit have been partners since 2007, and they operate in other Central and Eastern European countries such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary.
