Renault and Nissan to control Avtovaz Renault and Nissan have agreed to pay $750m to acquire indirect majority control of Avtovaz, Russia's top-selling carmaker, in a move that will consolidate their position in Europe's second-biggest car market. The French and Japanese allied carmakers said on Thursday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture with Russian Technologies, the state-holding company and Avtovaz's dominant shareholder. The joint venture will hold 74.5 per cent of the Russian producer. Renault, which bought 25 per cent of Avtovaz for $1.2bn in 2008, will invest about $300m in the venture. Nissan, which owns no shares in Avtovaz, will invest about $450m. The French and Japanese carmakers said they would invest the money in periodic payments through to the end of 2014, by which time they will hold a 67.13 per cent stake in the joint venture. Renault and Nissan had signalled their interest in increasing the French carmaker's 25 per cent stake to a jointly held majority, pending talks with Avtovaz's shareholders and Russian officials. The agreement was signed in Paris between the three carmakers, Russian Technologies, and the bank Troika Dialog, another Avtovaz shareholder. The joint venture will acquire Troika Dialog's entire stake in Avtovaz by 2014. Wednesday's announcement came a month after Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and president-elect, inaugurated a $525m assembly complex in Avtovaz's factory, adding capacity of up to 350,000 cars a year. Carlos Ghosn, Renault and Nissan's chief executive, said that the carmakers were joining forces with Avtovaz to support the Russian company with platforms and technologies, and to use "the enormous resources that they have on the Russian market for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of Renault/Nissan." Avtovaz makes cars under the Russian brand at some of the world's largest car plants in the Volga river city of Tolyatti. However the company has, since the fall of communism, seen its commanding market share eroded by foreign brands. Separately, Russian Technologies agreed to restructure Avtovaz's debt, in part through the sale of some of the carmaker's non-core assets. The financial crisis brought the Russian carmaker to the brink of insolvency in 2009, and led to tense deliberations between the Kremlin and Renault about how to bail it out. Mr Putin issued the French carmaker with an ultimatum to help the company or see its stake diluted. The two sides compromised, with Russia agreeing to keep Avtovaz financially afloat, and Renault pledging to put more technology and new models into the venture. More recently, Russia's market has revived and is now Renault and Nissan's third-largest after China and the US. The two carmakers and Lada sold 878,990 cars in Russia in 2011, or about one in three of total industry sales of 2.65m last year. The country is expected to overtake Germany as Europe's largest car market by 2015, with projected industry-wide sales of more than 4m units.