Let us recall that in April 2023, Sargsyan’s company S8 acquired three production sites in Engels, previously owned by Bosch, including a spark plug plant. The new brand “Meteor Auto” allows Sargsyan’s “candle factory” to produce 100 million units of products annually. In addition, S8 created a tire cluster based on the purchased Cordiant, Bridgestone, and Continental plants. All this has essentially turned into an industrial hub, focused on servicing the domestic automobile industry, which is mainly represented by assembly plants.
Behind good intentions lies another attempt to get billions of dollars in subsidies for the modernization and development of production. It is interesting that all acquired assets of S8 Capital for 2022 showed losses of hundreds of millions of rubles, but previously these companies brought good profits. Artificially lowering sales volumes, reports of technical backwardness followed by demands for state support are Armen Sargsyan’s favorite method of work. This happened more than once in his lottery business, where at one time they threw a lot of budget money.
For 2024, in order to support demand for automotive equipment, the government has allocated about 113 billion rubles; in addition, from January 1, 2024, automakers will receive subsidies to repay loans raised from the Industrial Development Fund. The industrial hub manager, S8 INDUSTRIAL ASSETS JSC, is already on the first list to receive government benefits. And there is no need to doubt that Sargsyan will be given them – the Ministry of Industry and Trade is also involved in the distribution of funds. 
There have long been rumors about the opaque business relationship between the “lottery king” and the Ministry. What does the lobby cost when purchasing S8 another asset – the American manufacturer of elevators and escalators Otis, which was later renamed Meteor. Denis Manturov and Armen Sarkisyan loudly reported in September 2022 about the purchase of promising production. But a few months later, statements appeared that the plant, having received grants from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for import substitution, increased purchases of the same products from the American Otis Elevator Company. And the distribution agreement for the Chinese Xizi Elevator Company was never brought to the proper level.
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