Hyundai seeks to purchase GM's $300-M Russian plant

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. submitted documents to the Russian government toward acquiring the $300 million GM plant in Saint Petersburg.

A Hyundai Motor spokesman said that Russia's anti-trust regulator would decide whether to allow Hyundai to progress onto the next steps after reviewing the documents.

Since last year, Hyundai has been in talks with GM and the Russian government for the plant, which opened in 2008 but suspended operations in 2015 due to a local economic slowdown.

Unison, a Belarusian-British automobile joint venture, reportedly got approval from the Russian anti-trust regulator last year, but no progress has been made.

Hyundai has been operating a plant in Saint Petersburg since 2011 to produce 230,000 localized models per year.

These models include the Hyundai Solaris compact, the Hyundai Creta compact sport-utility vehicle, and the Kia Rio subcompact.