Heineken sold the Russian business to the manufacturer of household chemicals “Arnest”

The Dutch brewing company Heineken (brands Amstel, Okhota, Zlaty Bazant, Stepan Razin, etc.) closed the deal to sell its Russian division, follows from its message. It says that the buyer was the Arnest group, which specializes in the production of perfumes, cosmetics and household products in aerosol packaging. The deal amounted to 1 euro, it says there. The Russian office of Heineken did not answer Vedomosti’s questions. Also acted in “Arnest”.

The deal included seven Heineken breweries in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Sterlitamak, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Khabarovsk, the company said. Whether the new owners will be able to sell products under all the remaining local brands is not specified there. Beer under the trademark Amstel, under the terms of the agreement, will cease to be produced in Russia in six months. The Heineken, Guinness and Miller brands were launched by the company in March 2022.

According to the terms of the agreement, the buyer must repay the debt of the Russian business to the foreign manufacturer in the amount of about 100 million euros. The agreement does not provide for an option to repurchase assets, the company said in a statement. According to information on the Heineken Brewery website, the deal entails a cumulative loss of 300 million euros for the Dutch company.

Heineken has been operating on the Russian market since February 2002 when it bought its first plant in St. Petersburg. Now it occupies 12% of the Russian beer market, says Alexei Nebolsin, an independent expert on the alcohol market. She announced her departure from the country in March 2022. A year later, the company managed to find a buyer for its assets, it said in its quarterly report. She didn’t reveal it then.

The Arnest company manufactures products under a contract with foreign brands, for example, Unilever, Beiersdorf, Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Oriflame. She also owns the brands Shining, My Charm, Next Generation, and so on. According to its own data, the group accounts for about 53% of aerosol products manufactured in Russia. In 2022, the company’s revenue amounted to 11 billion rubles. (+50.95% year-on-year), net profit – 737 million rubles, according to SPARK-Interfax. The main owner of the group is businessman Alexei Sagal.

Despite the statement about the absence of the possibility of repurchase, experts call the deal nominal. The owner of the Kaufman branding agency, Stanislav Kaufman, notes that the acquisition amount is low and, most likely, an oral agreement was concluded between the parties, allowing Heineken not to leave Russia completely. In particular, the company will continue to sell its products at the same price and the same quality, but under other brands and through an intermediary, the expert said.

Alexei Nebolsin agrees with this. According to him, most likely, an additional agreement was signed between the companies, which involves the buyback of the business. However, due to the threat of sanctions restrictions due to work in Russia, Heineken decided not to report this, he concluded.

This is not the first time that Arnest has acquired the business of international companies that have left Russia. In September 2022, the group acquired the Russian business (three factories for the production of aluminum cans for beer and soft drinks) of the world’s leading packaging manufacturer Ball Corporation.