The Russian government has approved the sale of Danish brewer Carlsberg’s assets in Russia to VG Invest, a local company with ties to breweries, 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 Breweries in July 2023 and placed it under “temporary management”, prompting Carlsberg Group CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen to declare that his company had been stolen. Carlsberg assets were removed from temporary management on Monday.
As part of 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 responsible for foreign asset sales, did not immediately respond.
The proposed sale price implies that Carlsberg is selling at a steep discount. In a February 2023 report, Carlsberg said its net assets in Russia as of December 2022 were worth 7.52 billion Danish crowns ($1.06 billion).
Russia has continued to toughen exit conditions for foreign companies since Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, demanding deep discounts on any sale of foreign assets before agreeing, and levying part of the sale price to replenish the state coffers, what Washington called an “exit tax”.
VG Invest was registered in August and is managed by Yegor Guselnikov, vice president of Baltika, Russian corporate documents show. Mr. Guselnikov is also a co-owner of Alexander Tolmachev Brewery Development Center (BDC), which was incorporated in July.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Alexander Tolmachev worked for Heineken in Russia and then for the grain trading company Demetra.
Guselnikov and Tolmachev declined to comment.
BDC owns a number of companies created 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 forced the sale of the French yogurt maker’s assets to a pro-Kremlin businessman earlier this year.
Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported late Monday, citing three sources, that Carlsberg had reached an agreement with private investors on the sale of its Russian operations, citing only one of the investors, Taimuraz Bolloev, president of Baltica.
Reuters could not immediately verify this detail.
(1 $ = 106,0000 roubles)
($1 = 7.1014 Danish crowns)
