Exit Completed: company sold its business/assets or its part of the business to a local partner and leaved the market or liquidated local entity(ies)
Exited Exit Completed
Danone is a French food company, a well-known manufacturer of dairy products and other food products.
Exit Completed: company sold its business/assets or its part of the business to a local partner and leaved the market or liquidated local entity(ies)
Exited Exit CompletedThe company has 16 plants and 1 farm in the Russian Federation producing traditional dairy products, yogurts, desserts under the Prostokvashino, Aktivia, Actimel, Danissimo, Tyoma, and Alpro brands. France's Danone (DANO.PA) said, it will book a further 200-million-euro writedown on its Russia business after it was effectively taken over by the state, taking the overall writedown on its Russian operations to around 700 million euros. Danone plans to sell its Russian business to a member of the Kremlin-installed leadership with ties to the nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, seven months after Putin ordered the confiscation of the French company's local operations. Danone wants to sell the Russian assets of dairy company Vamin Tatarstan, which is owned by 29-year-old Mintimer Mingazov. Mingazov was appointed to the board of Life & Nutrition (the renamed subsidiary of Danone in Russia) this summer after the Kremlin handed control of the company to Yakub Zakriev, Kadyrov's 33-year-old nephew. Danone has completely lost control over its former business in Russia and will not be able to return to the market. At the same time, the new company, Health & Nutrition, created on the basis of former Danone assets, has successfully adapted to work. In December 2024, Unimilk LLC (formerly Vamin-Tatarstan) was taken over by Ruslan Alisultanov, former deputy head of the Chechen Ministry of Agriculture and assistant to Kadyrov's nephew Yakub Zakriev. This company owns 99% of the shares in Vamin R LLC, the management group of Health & Nutrition (H&N) (it unites the former assets of Danone in the Russian Federation - Danone Russia). The company was transferred to Alisultanov by 29-year-old Mintimer Mingazov, to whom Danone sold its Russian assets in May 2024. That deal, judging by the documents examined, cost the buyers virtually zero, since it involved money from the former structures of the company itself. The assets of Russian Danone were valued at 40 billion rubles ($440 million) for the deal. Taking into account the "discount" (this is a requirement of the authorities for the "exit" of a business from Russia) of 56%, the final price of the company was 17.6 billion rubles ($194 million). Of this amount, 7.7 billion rubles were to be used to pay off the debt, and the remainder - to purchase 12 Danone factories in Russia.
Suspend new investment in Russia. Announced Transfer: the company seeks new operator for dairy, plant-based operations. According to the results of January-September 2022, Danone's global revenue grew by 14.9%, up to €20.7 billion, year-on-year, the business of dairy products and plant-based beverages in the Russian Federation accounted for about 5%. Still operating in Russia with increasing revenue volumes in 2022 vs 2021 (+$294mn or +11%) according to RAS (Russian Accounting Standards) and Federal Tax Service of Russia data, which doesn't include IFRS adjustments and intragroup eliminations. In the company's annual report prepared in accordance with IFRS, Russia's share in gross income is $1.5 billion (~6% of the total amount). Russia seizes control of shares in Danone and Carlsberg subsidiaries. Involuntary/forced exit. 09.2023: The full name was changed from DANONE TRADE LLC to H&N TRADE LLC | 20.09.2023: The entry about the founder of JSC "DANONE RUSSIA" was deleted; JSC "H&N" becomes the new founder of the organization. New owners of Danone are actively working/hiring new people in russia. The map used by the ru division of the company also shows the map of russian federation with Crimea and occupied territories in Luhans'k, Donets'k, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson as part of the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled the transfer of the assets of the French company Danone in Russia to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency. Danone completed the sale of Russian assets to Vamin R.