By Alexandre Moelle
LONDON (Reuters) – The Russian government has approved the sale of Danish brewer Carlsberg’s assets in Russia to VG Invest, a local company with links to brewing companies, for 34 billion rubles ($320.75 million), according to a government document seen by Reuters.
Moscow took control of Carlsberg’s stake in Russian brewery Baltika in July 2023 and placed it under “temporary management”, leading Jacob Aarup-Andersen, CEO of the Carlsberg Group, to declare that its activities had been stolen. Carlsberg assets were removed from temporary management on Monday.
Under the deal, Baltika’s stakes in Carlsberg Azerbaijan, Carlsberg Kazakhstan and another Azerbaijani subsidiary will be transferred to Carlsberg, in exchange for a brewing asset in Russia, Hoppy Union.
Carlsberg had no immediate comment. Baltika declined to comment and the Russian Finance Ministry, which heads the government commission on foreign asset sales, did not immediately respond.
The proposed sale price implies that Carlsberg is selling at a significant discount. In a February 2023 report, Carlsberg said its net assets in Russia as of December 2022 stood at 7.52 billion Danish crowns ($1.06 billion).
Russia has continued to tighten exit requirements for foreign companies since Western sanctions were imposed following Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, demanding deep discounts on any sale of foreign assets before giving approval, and taking part of the sale price to strengthen the state coffers, what is called an “exit tax”. ” by Washington.
VG Invest was registered in August and is headed by Yegor Guselnikov, vice president of Baltika, according to documents filed by the Russian company. Guselnikov is also a co-owner with Alexander Tolmachev Brewery Development Center (BDC), which was incorporated in July.
Tolmachev worked for Heineken in Russia and then for grain trading company Demetra, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Guselnikov and Tolmachev declined to comment.
BDC owns a number of companies founded this year, including New Breweries and Project 650. The latter is led by Alexei Pyatkin, who is also CEO of Carlsberg-owned Hoppy Union.
Carlsberg’s assets were seized at the same time as those of Danone. Moscow was forced to sell the French yogurt maker’s assets to a pro-Kremlin businessman earlier this year.
Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported Monday evening, citing three sources, that Carlsberg had reached an agreement with private investors on the sale of its Russian operations, naming only one of the investors, Taimuraz Bolloev, president of Baltika.
