Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided that Russian subsidiaries of yogurt maker Danone and beer company Carlsberg should go “under temporary management” of the Russian state. The decision was taken on the basis of a new rule introduced in Russia at the beginning of the year, according to which the government can decide to seize the assets of companies from “hostile countries”.
Danone and Carlsberg had been in talks to sell their Russian operations for months. Danone said it is gathering more information on what is happening and specified that it will take the necessary measures to protect shareholder rights. Carlsberg said it has not received any official information from Russian authorities: last month it signed an agreement to sell Baltika Breweries – its Russian branch – but had not yet completed the deal.
Now the two companies have been placed under the control of the Russian agency Rosimushchestvo. The same thing happened in April to two energy companies, the German Uniper and the Finnish Fortum.