Heineken blames Russia exit delay on local paperwork
07/03/2023 13:59
March 7 (Reuters) - Heineken HEIO.AS on Tuesday blamed
the delay in its Russia exit on local bureaucracy that it said
was beyond its control, and reiterated it still planned to exit
the country.
Last month, a story by investigative website Follow The
Money questioned whether Heineken had followed through on its
March 2022 promise to leave Russia, including selling its
non-Heineken international brands like Amstel.
"It's challenging to close a transaction in Russia at the
moment as rules continue to shift," the Dutch company said,
adding its business transfers required many approvals by local
authorities, the time frame of which it could not affect.
The company nonetheless acknowledged frustrations around the
delay, saying it shared the sentiment.
"There's no ambiguity about our promise: we will leave
Russia," Heineken said in a Q&A section on its website on
Monday, to which it referred in Tuesday's statement.
The brewer also said on its website that its Russian
business needed to introduce new local products to avoid
bankruptcy until the full disposal was completed, after its
products were removed from the market following Russia's
invasion of Ukraine.
"You can't sell a loss-making business and their aim was to
keep the business afloat until the transfer of ownership is
completed," it said.
Heineken is the third largest brewer in Russia and the local
business accounts for just 2% of its global sales, the company
said.
Danish rival Carlsberg CARLb.CO said on Tuesday its chief
executive Cees't Hart would retire at the end of September after
seeing through the sale of its Russian business.
(Reporting by Dina Kartit and Olivier Sorgho in Gdansk; Editing
by Milla Nissi)
((Olivier.Sorgho@thomsonreuters.com))