Unilever has confirmed that it has completed the divestment of its Russian subsidiary and related business in Belarus to Arnest Group, a local manufacturer of perfumes, cosmetics and household products. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed. In a brief statement yesterday, 10 October, the multinational confirmed the transaction. 

"Unilever has completed the sale of its Russian subsidiary to Arnest Group, a Russian manufacturer of perfumes, cosmetics and household products. The sale includes all of Unilever’s activities in Russia and its four plants in the country. Our activities in Belarus are also included in the sale. Over the past year we have carefully prepared Unilever Russia’s assets for a potential sale. This work was very complex and involved the separation of IT platforms and supply chains, as well as the migration of the marks into Cyrillic. The completion of the sale puts an end to Unilever Russia’s presence in the country".

Last month, reports from Russia suggested that Unilever had received Kremlin approval to sell its assets in the country. The RBC newspaper, Ros Biznes Consulting, a Russian media group based in Moscow, revealed that the deal was approved at the end of August by a sub-commission of the government commission: according to press reports, the Russian activities of Unilever, including its brands of ice cream, were valued between 35 and 40 billion rubles equivalent to a figure between 333.1 and over 380 million Euro.

Unilever, in july last year, at the time of the communication of the results of the first half, declared that, on 30 June, its activities in Russia had a net worth of about 600 million Euros, including four factories. It is probably not a coincidence that the multinational, after having announced in March 2024 the separation from its business of ice cream companies has confirmed shortly afterwards, that is to say last June, that it would continue to produce ice cream in Russia even after it has spun off the division of ice cream, business unit that in Russia in 2023 generated revenues of 8 billion Euros. 

Unilever’s first half ended with underlying revenue growth of 4.1%, volumes up 2.6%: revenues increased by 2.3% to 31.1 billion Euros, with an impact of 1.1% on currency and (0.7%) on net sales. Brand and marketing investments increased by 180 percentage points to 15.1%, focusing on Power Brands. Other key figures were the 3% increase in the quarterly dividend; the start of the share buyback for 1.5 billion Euros, a free cash flow of 2.2 billion Euros, "reflecting seasonal outflow of working capital".

In september, the multinational disclosed its pre-closing for Q3 2024 which predicts underlying sales growth of between 3% and 5%, with most of the growth driven by volume, and the underlying operating margin for the full year that "should be at least 18%, with increasing investment in our brands: we expect the margin progression on an annual basis in the second half of the year to be lower than in the first half," explains the official statement.