Heineken has just sold its Russian beer business for £0.86

Heineken has just sold its Russian beer business for £0.86 (€1), eighteen months after it pledged to pull out of the country following its invasion of Ukraine.

The move by the world’s second-largest brewer, which also produces Amstel and Birra Moretti, sees it take a huge loss with some estimating the company is down as much as £257 million as a result of the decision.

Having faced mounting criticism over the length of time it has taken the business to complete its exit from Russia, Heineken has finally sold up.

Its Russian business, which includes seven breweries and 1,800 employees, now belongs to Arnest Group and was sold for the incredibly small sum of £0.86 – despite being valued at around €300m.

Speaking on the sale, Chief Executive Dolf van den Brink refused to say why the search for a buyer has taken so long, saying only that the process had been ‘highly complex’.

He continued: “While it took much longer than we had hoped, this transaction secures the livelihoods of our employees and allows us to exit the country in a responsible manner,” Heineken’s chief executive Dolf van den Brink said.

Dolf van den Brink also said that the company was ‘very mindful’ that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree in July seizing Dutch group Carlsberg’s stake in a local brewer, adding: “It was key to get the vast majority of our international brands out because we didn’t want them to stay in the country.”

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Heineken has also stressed that, despite the huge loss, its full-year 2023 outlook would not be affected as the business only produced around 4% of its annual income a year – equivalent to 10 million hectolitres of beer.

“It was key to get the vast majority of our international brands out because we didn’t want them to stay in the country,” Van der Brink said.

Featured image – Flickr