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Danish brewer Carlsberg is selling its Russian unit to a local company in a $322mn deal, according to a government document seen by the Financial Times, after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ending state control of the division.
Russia took control of Carlsberg’s subsidiary Baltika Breweries in July 2023 and placed it under “temporary management”, leaving the company with no control over a business that had made up 10 per cent of its global revenues. In October that year, Carlsberg said it had written off the business and accused the Russian government of having “stolen” Baltika.
The Kremlin put tight restrictions on western companies that wished to leave the Russian market following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, often refusing to approve foreign asset sales unless offered sharp discounts.
The government document shows that Baltika will be sold to VG Invest for Rbs34bn ($322mn), with the deal expected to close in the coming days. It comes after Putin lifted the “temporary management” status from the company’s Russian subsidiary on Monday.
Carlsberg said the deal would take the form of a management buyout. VG Invest is owned by two long-standing Baltika employees who currently hold leadership positions in the group. Company filings show that VG Invest was set up in August and is run by Baltika vice-president Egor Guselnikov.
In a statement on Tuesday, Carlsberg said that it would receive cash as part of the deal, but did not specify how much. As part of the deal, the brewer will also take control of Baltika Breweries’ shareholdings in Carlsberg Azerbaijan and Carlsberg Kazakhstan.
Carlsberg chief executive Jacob Aarup-Andersen said: “With today’s announcement, we will settle numerous lawsuits and IP rights issues related to Baltika Breweries. Considering the circumstances, we believe it is the best achievable outcome for our employees, shareholders and the continued business.”
Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, said: “You can only be happy that Carlsberg is not going to leave with its pockets completely empty, as it could have.
“But it is obvious that companies that left the Russian market at the very start of the war have won, because they managed to do it without dramatic losses like this,” she added.
The brewer’s assets were initially placed under government control after the company announced it was close to securing a deal to sell its local subsidiary to Arnest, a Russian chemical group that bought Unilever’s Russian assets earlier this year.
