MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree on Wednesday removing Danone’s activities in Russia from the list of foreign assets temporarily under state management.
Last July, the latter took control of the Russian subsidiary of the French agri-food group via the federal agency Rossimushchestvo, responsible for the management of Russian state assets, in retaliation for Western sanctions linked to the invasion of Ukraine. by Russia.
The Financial Times reported in February that a Russian businessman posting support for the war in Ukraine on Instagram planned to acquire Danone’s assets in Russia, renamed “Life & Nutrition”, for 17.7 billion rubles (177 million euros).
Citing a letter addressed to the Minister of Agriculture, Dmitri Patrushev, the FT wrote that Danone was considering selling these activities to Vamin Tatarstan, a newly created company owned by Chechen businessman Mintimer Mingazov.
The latter was appointed to the board of directors of “Life & Nutrition” after the Kremlin appointed a new management team led by Yakoub Zakriev, nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
According to the letter cited by the FT and signed by Ayrat Moukhamadeev, himself a director of Vamin Tatarstan, Danone would receive 10 billion rubles as part of a possible transaction and the balance of 7.7 billion rubles would be used to cover the debt of its Russian subsidiary.
Still according to this letter, the amount of the transaction would represent a discount of 56% compared to the market value of the entity.
Danone refused to comment on the Financial Times information at the time.
(Reuters editorial, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Jean Terzian)
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