RUSSIAN automotive group Gaz, controlled by Russia’s aluminium oligarch Oleg Deripaska, is in talks to buy van-maker LDV.

LDV, which was formerly known as Leyland DAF, is owned by American private equity firm Sun Capital Partners and employs about 800 workers at its Birmingham plant.

The company manufactures panel vans and minibuses. The company’s revenues amount to more than £200 million a year.

The talks between LDV and Gaz, Russia’s second largest automaker, are at a preliminary stage, the two parties said in a joint statement. Russian business daily Vedomosti said that Gaz may limit itself to buying a license to produce Maxus minivans, without actually acquiring the plant.