by Alexander Marrow
LONDON (Reuters) – The Russian government has approved the sale of Denmark’s Carlsberg assets in Russia to VG Invest, a local company with links to the liquor industry, for 34 billion rubles ($320.75 million), a government document seen by Reuters showed.
Moscow took control of Carlsberg’s Russian subsidiary Baltika Breweries in July 2023 and put it under “short-term control,” prompting Carlsberg Group CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen that the business was stolen. Carlsberg Group was removed from the interim leadership on Monday.
As part of the deal, Baltika’s shares in Carlsberg Azerbaijan, Carlsberg Kazakhstan and other Azerbaijani subsidiaries will be transferred to Carlsberg, in exchange for the Russian brewery, Hoppy Union.
Carlsberg did not immediately comment. Baltika declined to comment and Russia’s finance ministry, which oversees the government’s foreign asset sales commission, did not immediately respond.
The estimated sales price refers to the sale of Carlsberg at a lower price. In a February 2023 report, Carlsberg said its assets in Russia as of December 2022 were worth 7.52 billion Danish crowns ($1.06 billion).
Russia has continued to tighten the requirements for the exit of foreign companies since the imposition of Western sanctions over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, demanding a large discount on any sale of foreign goods before granting permission, and taking a portion of the sale price to strengthen the country’s coffers, the so-called “exit tax.” ” by Washington.
VG Invest was registered in August and is headed by Yegor Guselnikov, vice president at Baltika, Russian company records showed. Guselnikov also has the Alexander Tolmachev Brewery Development Center (BDC), which was incorporated in July.
Tolmachev previously worked for Heineken in Russia and later worked for the grain trading company Demetra, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Guselnikov and Tolmachev declined to comment.
BDC has several companies established this year, including New Breweries and Project 650. The latter is managed by Alexei Pyatkin, who is also the CEO of Carlsberg-owned Hoppy Union.
Carlsberg equipment was acquired at the same time as Danone. Moscow pushed through the sale of the French yogurt maker’s assets to a pro-Kremlin businessman earlier this year.
The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported late Monday, citing three sources, that Carlsberg had reached an agreement with private investors for the sale of its Russian business, naming one of the investors, Taimuraz Bolloev, president of Baltika.