As French groups Danone and Denmark’s Carlsberg signaled plans to exit the Russian market following the Ukraine offensive, the Russian state has taken control of assets in Russia, a decree issued on Sunday said.
According to this decree signed by Vladimir Putin and published on the official Russian legal portal, 98.56% of the shares of the Russian brewery Baltika, belonging to Carlsberg, and tens of thousands of shares belonging to Danone are placed “temporarily” under the Russian state control.
In detail, this decree specifies that 83,292,493,000 shares of “Danone Russia”, owned by the group “Fresh dairy products East Europe”, still according to the decree, are placed under the control of the Russian State, as well as 85,000 others shares belonging to the “Danone Trade” group.
At the end of June, the Danish brewer Carlsberg announced that it had found a buyer, without naming him, for its activities in Russia, more than a year after announcing its withdrawal from the country following the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
The group announced at the end of March 2022 the sale of its important activities in Russia, where it has 8,400 employees and has owned the Russian brand Baltika since 2000.
In mid-October, the French agrifood giant Danone had announced its intention to withdraw from most of its activities in Russia.
The group, which had initially assumed its presence in Russia to meet “the essential food needs of civilian populations”, had said it planned to cede control of its “dairy and vegetable products” branch, retaining only that of nutrition infant.
The French giant had specified that this withdrawal operation could “lead to a depreciation of up to 1 billion euros” in its accounts.
Danone markets milk and yoghurts in Russia under the Danone, Danissimo or Prostokvashino brands. In 2010, the group had bought 57.5% of the number two Russian dairy products, Unimilk (21% market share and 25 factories).
Since the attack on Ukraine by Russia on February 24 and the first economic sanctions decreed by the West, many multinationals have left Russia, others have suspended their activities there, in the oil, automobile or luxury.
