Kommersant announced Henkel’s plans to isolate the Russian business

The German manufacturer of cosmetics and household chemicals Henkel from 2023 will operate in Russia as an independent company called Lab Industries, informed “Kommersant” with reference to the letter of the General Director of the Henkel representative office in Russia Sergey Bykovsky to suppliers.

The document clarifies that the company has been working on a solution “which involves the transfer of ownership” since April, when it announced its readiness to sell business in Russia and Belarus. At the same time, an important condition for closing the deal is the independence of the local company from the global business processes of the Henkel group.

The publication also found that in October the company filed an application with Rospatent for registration of a new trademark “L.A.B. Industries”.

According to sources of the publication, it has not yet been possible to agree on the sale of the business, which may be due to the high price – 500 million euros. At the same time, the fair value of Henkel’s business in Russia is 600 million euros, however, in the current conditions, such transactions are closed at a significant discount, says Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics. According to him, the Russian assets of the company can be sold for no more than 250-300 million euros.

Henkel began working in Russia in 1991. Now the company, according to the holding’s website, owns 12 offices and 11 factories in different regions of Russia. For example, factories in Perm, the Leningrad region (Tosno) and Engels produce Persil, Losk, Deni, and other detergents and cleaners. Factories in Kolomna, the Chelyabinsk and Ulyanovsk regions are engaged in the production of Ceresit building mixtures. The revenue of Henkel Rus LLC according to RAS in 2021 increased by 13.1% to RUB 95.14 billion, while net profit amounted to RUB 7.48 billion against RUB 7.84 billion. a year earlier.

After the start of the CBO in Ukraine, Henkel announced that he was preparing to leave Russia and Belarus, in March he stopped investing in Russian business, but did not stop production and operations. The document said that the exit from the Russian and Belarusian markets is estimated at 184 billion euros.