The brewery has completed an agreement to sell all of its assets and leave Russia.
The Dutch beer manufacturer has sold its entire business to Russian companies. It includes seven breweries, Bloomberg writes.
Thus, Heineken is among the few companies that have succeeded in pulling out of Russia after President Vladimir Putin put in place a raft of regulations that made pulling business operations out of the country more complicated.
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Heineken itself claims to have lost €300m, or a measly NOK 3.5bn, from the sale. The agreement has now been signed, so the process, which Heineken started in March 2022, is on track.
Recent developments illustrate the challenges that major companies face when trying to leave Russia. Although this took much longer than we had hoped, this transaction guarantees good conditions for our employees and allows us to exit the country in a responsible manner, Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink says in a statement.
Heineken has not entered into an agreement to be able to buy back the assets, and the company states that the sale will not have any significant impact on the share price.
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Putin signed a decree in April allowing the state to take temporary control of companies owned by “unfriendly” countries. This includes the United States and its allies. This has complicated Heineken’s operation.
This was incredibly complicated, Van den Brink tells Bloomberg.
– There was a real danger of our employees being prosecuted, or the company being nationalised.
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