30th issue of the weekly digest on impact of foreign companies’ exit on RF economy
5 December 2022
Prepared by the KSE Institute team and KSE members of the Board of Directors with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation; 28.11-04.12.2022
Disclaimer: At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine KSE Institute launched an analytical project, which was named “SelfSanctions”, aimed to collect data on foreign companies operating in the Russian market and limiting or terminating their activities. Examination of data was conducted jointly with specialists from the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The database contains a lot of information, we collect daily statistics on changes in the status of foreign companies operating/operated in the Russian market and limiting or terminating their activities. Also, we created the Telegram bot https://t.me/exit_ru_bot for tracking/monitoring of news on priority foreign companies (coverage 1, 2, 3 or 7 days of monitoring). Also, we do regular analysis of changes in share prices and capitalization of parent groups of companies that have or have had business in Russia.
KSE database is partly based on the Yale’s School of Management database, epravda.com.ua, squeezingputin.com, leave-russia.org websites and other open sources. Data is verified and KSE status is assigned. Data on stocks is taken from Google and Yahoo Finance. At the same time, the KSE database is more complete and comprehensive and contains ~40 percent more information than most other similar databases, as it also includes data on number of staff, revenue, capital and other financial indicators, the latest updates and changes in statuses, links to used sources, and daily updates from the telegram-bot etc.
KSE Institute is glad to announce have finalized merging with project leave-russia.org which was developed by a team of volunteers.
Also, we are in the negotiation phase of partnering with Rubargo. Rubargo allows you to find any brand or company that is operating in Russia. With our service, you can not only find such a company, but also check proof links with information about the company’s public statement or public research that can confirm this information. You are able to scan barcodes and dynamically receive information about specific products and their origin.
Impose your personal sanctions by downloading app here: Apple App Store | Google Play.
KSE DATABASE SNAPSHOT as of 04.12.2022
Number of the companies that continue Russian operations (KSE’s status «stay»¹) – 1 185 (-6 per week)
Number of the companies that have reduced current operations and hold off new Investments (KSE’s status «wait») – 501 (0 per week)
Number of the companies that have curtailed Russian operations (KSE’s status «leave») – 1 146 (+2 per week)
Number of the companies that completed withdrawal from Russia (KSE’s status “exited”) – 142(+6 per week, +10 per 2 months)
As of December 04, we have identified about 2,974 companies, organisations and their brands from 86 countries and 56 industries and analysed their position on the Russian market. About 40% of them are public ones, for ~1 300 public groups of companies, we also identified (where it was possible) their operating business in Russia (the presence of a controlling stake in a legal entity) and updated the data for 2021, which allowed us to calculate the value of capital invested in the country (about $162.0 billion), local revenue (about $294.3 billion), local assets (about $281.0 billion) as well as staff (about 1.290 million people) and taxes paid (about $24.4 billion). 1,647 foreign companies have reduced, suspended or ceased operations in Russia. Also, we added information about 142 companies that have completed the sale of their business in Russia based on the information collected from the official registers (November update this week allowed us to identify another 4 exited companies)..
As can be seen from the tables below, as of December 04, companies which had already completely exited from the Russian Federation, had at least 283,000 personnel, $35.4 bn in annual revenue, $14.7 bn in capital and $31.5 bn in assets; companies, that declared a complete withdrawal from Russia had 127,400 personnel, $31.9bn in revenues, $38.8bn in capital and $84.9 bn in assets; companies that suspended operations on the Russian market had 270,000 personnel, annual revenue of $51.5bn, $28.5bn in capital and $33.2 bn in assets.
If since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the percentage of companies that closed operations in Russia has risen sharply by mid-March, in the last month the ratio of those who leave or stay is virtually unchanged. although we still see a periodic increase in the share of those companies that remain in the Russian market. However, about 38.5% of foreign companies have already announced their withdrawal from the Russian market, but another 39.8% are still remaining in the country, 16.8% are waiting and only 4.8% made a complete exit³.
At the same time, it is difficult not to overestimate the impact on the Russian economy of only 142 companies that completely left the country, since they employed almost 22.0% of the personnel employed in foreign companies, the companies owned about 11.2% of the assets, had 9.1% of capital invested by foreign companies, only last year they generated revenue of $35.4 billion or 12.0% of total revenue and paid $3.2 billion of taxes or 12.9% of total taxes paid by the companies observed. Data on 1,300 TOP companies are presented in the table above.
More infographics and analytics see in a special section at the link https://leave-russia.org/bi-analytics
WEEKLY FOCUS: On leaving the Russian Federation: results of November
In our project, we pay special attention to companies that have their own legal entities in Russia. They pay taxes and hire staff. From the total list of more than 3 thousand companies and organisations, we counted about 1.3 thousand such companies. Their total revenue in 2021 in the Russian Federation exceeded USD 290 billion.
And at least 142 of them have already sold local companies and left, at least legally, the Russian market. In this digest, we will summarise the latest results for November.
The number of foreign business sales
companies in Russia
According to our data, at least four deals took place in November. Here they are:
The sale of “NISSAN MANUFACTURING RUS” LLC (revenue in 2021 – 1,392 million USD, staff – 1,877 people) – the Nissan car assembly plant in St. Petersburg, which was stopped back in March of this year – gained the most publicity. Formally, according to Russian registers, the deal was closed on November 23, as the Japanese corporation urgently announced in its short release. The amount of the transaction is 1 ruble. It provides for buyback within 6 years. The buyer is the Russian state institute NAMI.
The second most important deal was the sale of several legal entities by Baker Hughes: JSC “Baker Hughes”, LLC “BJ Samotlor Services Vostok”, LLC “Oilamp Services”, LLC “Orenburgneftegeofizika”, LLC “Energo Innovations”, LLC “Baker Hughes Services Rus”, LLC “Tyumensky Zavod Neftepromyslovogo Oborudovaniya”, JSC “Oilamp Service” (total revenue 1,087 million USD, staff – 322 people). The Moscow firm “NEFTESERVYSNYE TECHNOLOGY” became the buyer. The company is owned by three individuals, one of whom is, for example, Oleksandr Monakhov: in the media, he previously appeared as the director of the drilling department in Baker Hughes. Selling a business to local top managers is a common thing. Especially in this case.
Previously, the Russian goverment recognized these assets as strategic (Baker Hughes is an American international industrial service company and one of the world’s largest oil industry service companies), so the deal had to be agreed in the Kremlin. The corresponding notice is published on the official Internet portal of legal information.
The subject of the third agreement was the property of the American manufacturer of aluminium products Arconic Corp (JSC “ARKONYK SMZ”, revenue in 2021 – 1018 million USD, staff – 1232 people). It was sold to the Russian state metallurgical company “VSMPO-AVISMA” for $230 million. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the company’s statement. “Operating in Russia has only become more difficult, and our ability to operate in the future is increasingly uncertain in light of the current geopolitical environment,” said Arconic Chief Executive Officer Tim Myers.
In addition, it became known about the sale in November German logistics operator VTG of the Moscow-based “VTG” LLC ($ 26 million, staff – 22 employees), the tech giant Nvidia closed its representative office and office in Moscow, and also about the expansion of the franchise Krispy Kreme with Russian partners (now their business is in the process of rebranding). Also, in November, a secondary agreement on the change of ownership of “Imperial Tobacco Sales and Marketing” LLC took place (revenue 971 million US dollars, staff – 864 employees). In the summer, the British tobacco giant Imperial Brands sold this asset to a group of unknown individuals. And on November 7, Serhiy Katsiev became the new beneficiary of the business. Katsiev is a billionaire and owns “Megapolis” company – the largest tobacco distributor in the Russian Federation. Katsiev himself is included in the sanctions list of the NSDC in Ukraine. Katsiev is included in the sanctions list of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) in Ukraine.
The next overview of deals for December 2022 is coming in a month.
What’s new last week – key news from Daily monitoring
(updated on a weekly basis)⁴
28.11.2022
*Chevron (USA, Energy, oil and gas) Status by KSE – leave
Chevron will be able to expand production and export of Venezuelan oil to replace Russian oil
29.11.2022
*Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (South Korea, Industrial equipment) Status by KSE – leave
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has notified the cancellation of the contracts on all three LNG carriers awarded by a Russian client two years ago. The Russian client failed to make payments for the ships on time, amid sanctions by the international community against Russia for the prolonged invasion of Ukraine.
http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=104900
*Asics (Japan, Consumer goods and clothing) Status by KSE – leave
ASICS ceased all commercial operations in Russia after the invasion began and has since exited the Russian market.
https://corp.asics.com/en/russia20221121
*Bellona (Netherlands, Energy, oil and gas) Status by KSE – leave
Bellona has been working in Russia for more than 30 years. This activity has now been discontinued, and Bellona has opened a new office in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Bellona specialists resettled from Russia will continue to work.
https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/nuclear-russia/2022-11-bellona-closes-its-offices-in-russia
01.12.2022
*ONGC Videsh Ltd (India,Energy, oil and gas) Status by KSE – stay
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has received approval from Russia to retain a 20 percent stake in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas fields in the far east region of the country, said Rajarshi Gupta, Managing Director of ONGC Videsh.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/ongc-retains-20-stake-in-russias-sakhalin-1-9621861.html
*Uniper SE (Germany, Energy, oil and gas) Status by KSE – wait
Uniper Board Plans ‘Maximum Separation’ from Russian Business Unit
02.12.2022
*Inspire Brands (Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin Robbins) (USA, Public catering) Status by KSE – wait
Following loss of licence Baskin-Robbins becomes BRandICE in Russia
*Airbus (Brazil, Aircraft industry) Status by KSE – wait
Airbus To Stop Purchasing Russian Titanium Within Months
https://simpleflying.com/airbus-stop-russian-titanium-months/
*Disney (USA, Entertainment) Status by KSE – leave
Disney Channel to stop broadcasting in Russia from Dec. 14
03.12.2022
*Google (USA, Online Services) Status by KSE – wait
Google terminates thousand of YouTube channels in China, Russia, Brazil
¹ – KSE status “leave” – Companies that have published on the company’s official website (or their release has appeared in a foreign publication such as FT, NYT, etc.) that are completely shutting down in Russia or companies that have officially announced that they are temporarily reducing operations in Russia
– KSE status “wait” – Companies that have published on the company’s official website (or their release has appeared in a foreign publication such as FT, NYT, etc.) that they are reducing only part of their business operations by continuing to work on other operations or companies that have reported delaying future investment / development / marketing , while continuing their core business
– KSE status “stay” – Companies that ignore exit / downsizing requirements in Russia, as well as companies that have officially stated that they remain in Russia or news of their exit have not been found
– KSE status “exited” – Companies that sold its business/assets or its part of the business to a local partner and leaved the market
² As of 19/06/2022, we updated the database with extended information on ~ + 400 new companies, and as of 28/08/2022, we have updated data for another 422 companies with data on personnel, revenue, capital and assets for 2021. Also, we started to monitor additionally whether companies really stated any actions to exit the country (currently we observe a very small number of such companies). So far we found information only about a few companies which started selling their business in Russia. Even for most of them – it’s just an intention or they just started the process of sale. Everything else is mostly the statements or some preliminary steps. The collected information is already available and systematised in the form of a newKSE’s status “exited”.
³ On 24 July 2022, we introduced the new status “exited”, which reflects the companies’ actions to finalise the exit from the Russian market. The status relies on data from the Uniform State Register of Legal Entities in Russia (USRLE or EGRUL) and complementary analysis such as companies’ announcements and media publications of company activities. At the same time, companies’ activities can be hard to track and can be missed in the analysis, especially for companies less covered in the media. We encourage our readers to inform us if they are familiar with the companies’ actions that contradict their announcements about the exit via the Feedback Form at https://leave-russia.org/
⁴ Recently, a new section “Company news” was added to the project site https://leave-russia.org/, follow daily updates directly on the site