Unilever has completed the sale of Unilever Russia to local perfume and household products manufacturer Arnest Group. As Europa Press has revealed, the figure of the deal has not been specified by either party, but ‘Financial Times’ claims that sources close to the operation indicate that the deal was closed at 520 million euros.
Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher explained the terms of the sale: ‘The sale includes all of Unilever's businesses in Russia and its four factories in the country’. Schumacher indicated that the Belarus business is also included in the deal.
He also explained that ‘over the past year, we have been carefully preparing the Unilever Russia business for a possible sale. This work has been very complex and has involved separating the IT platforms and supply chains, as well as migrating the brands to Cyrillic script’.
Arnest has been cooperating for 17 years with Unilever, which has been present in Russia since 1991 and has some 3,000 employees in the country and four large production sites.
Sales in Russia accounted for 1.4% of total turnover for the Unilver group in 2022 and 2% of net profit. But, by the end of 2023, its turnover had declined and so had its contribution to the company's total net profit with asset valuations falling to €600 million.