MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The move to transfer the Rolf automotive group’s shares and subsidiaries to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency is motivated by economic pragmatism owing to the current international situation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"This is due solely to economic feasibility, compliance with the relevant legislation of the Russian Federation and to the well-known international economic situation that we are now in," he said.

Peskov drew attention to the fact that Rolf is not a purely Russian company, since "there are various offshore holdings there."

"It is a Russian company, but there are different ownership schemes that required intervention," the Kremlin official said. He declined to comment further on the topic.

Earlier today, Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed that Rolf’s 660,759,610 shares, owned by the Cyprus offshore Delance Limited, and the 15,198 Rolf shares owned by Rolf Motors, are to be taken under government control. All shares in the authorized capital of Rolf Motors, Rolf Estate St. Petersburg and Rolf Tech will also fall under temporary management.

According to data from Spark (the system for checking counterparties) for 2022, the Rolf company is 99.99% owned by the Cyprus offshore Delance Limited, while Rolf Motors holds less than 0.01%. As for JSC Rolf itself it owns 99% of Rolf Estate St. Petersburg and Rolf Motors (the rest is owned by Delance Limited). JSC Rolf holds a 100% stake in Rolf Tech.

According to the company's reporting for 2022, Rolf’s authorized capital consists of 660.7 million shares. The Rolf company was founded in 1991. Its portfolio includes 21 automobile and motorcycle brands. The dealer network covers Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the end of June 2019, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation filed charges against the head of the Rolf car dealer Sergey Petrov and a number of other company executives for withdrawing 4 billion rubles ($43.5 mln) abroad. Petrov, as well as the former general director of the car dealer Tatyana Lukovetskaya and the director of the Cyprus company Panabel Limited Georgiy Kafkalia were arrested in absentia and put on the wanted list.