Heineken sells its assets in Russia
The company reported this, Ukrinform saw.
"Heineken announces completion of the transaction to sell its Russia operations to Arnest Group. The transaction has received all the required approvals and concludes the process Heineken initiated in March 2022 to exit Russia, incurring an expected total cumulative loss of €300m," the company said.
The purchase price for 100% of Heineken's shares in Russia was €1. All other assets, including seven breweries in Russia, will be transferred to the new owners. They will stop producing beer under the Amstel brand within six months (the Heineken brand was withdrawn from Russia in 2022).
No other international brands will be licensed in Russia, except for a 3-year license for some small regional brands, which are necessary to ensure business continuity and secure approval of transactions.
Heineken will also not provide brand support or receive any revenues, royalties or dividends from Russia.
The agreement also obliges the buyer to repay the intra-group debt of the Russian business to Heineken in the amount of €100 million.
Arnest Group has assumed responsibility for 1,800 Heineken employees in Russia, providing job guarantees for the next three years.
"We have now completed our exit from Russia. Recent developments demonstrate the significant challenges faced by large manufacturing companies in exiting Russia. While it took much longer than we had hoped, this transaction secures the livelihoods of our employees and allows us to exit the country in a responsible manner," Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink said.
The company had been operating in Russia since 2002, when it bought its first brewery in St. Petersburg. Heineken owned seven breweries in the country.
As Ukrinform reported, the Dutch brewing concern Heineken had admitted that it was still operating in Russia and even introduced new drinks.
The permission to launch new products was issued to the Russian division from Heineken's headquarters. This was necessary to find a new buyer and avoid bankruptcy.
The company says that the Heineken brand itself was immediately removed from the Russian market. But if new products had not replaced it, this could have meant the end of the Russian division and over 1,700 employees would have been out of work.
In addition, there was a threat of prosecution for local executives, as deliberately driving a company into bankruptcy is a criminal offense.
Last year, Heineken Russia introduced new drinks. In addition to Amstel variants, there were also soft drinks.
In a previous statement, Heineken said that the decisions were made by local managers in Russia. But now the company admits that it launched new products in Russia last year with the permission of the Dutch headquarters.
Heineken explained the launch of new brands in Russia by the need to find a buyer for the business.
