In recent years, the number of non-resident enterprises in Russia has been rapidly declining: by the end of 2023 there are 37% fewer of them than in 2017, when the number of such legal entities reached its maximum (116.400 versus 185.000). This assessment was made by SPARK-Interfax based on data from the Unified Register of Legal Entities
Boris Kopeikin, First Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Research, believes that the general decline in the number of foreign companies is mainly due to the decision of many companies from unfriendly countries to stop or limit their activities in the Russian market. The process of deoffshorization also made a contribution, but it will be much less significant, he believes.
Among new companies, the activity of co-founders from the CIS and China is growing: in 10 months of 2023, 1ю500 companies were registered from China. Moreover, organizations from this country now account for a quarter of all new registrations.
The share of CIS countries increased from 44% in 2021 to 59% in 2023. The main increase occurred in Belarus (from 23% to 32%), Kyrgyzstan (from 5% to 9%) and Kazakhstan (from 5% to 6%). Turkey accounted for 3% of new registrations, India -2%.
Last year, only 3% of enterprises with capital from unfriendly countries were registered. For comparison, in 2021 this figure was 14%.
Foreign companies that left Russia lost $103 milliard because of this. Such data was published in mid-December 2023 by The New York Times (NYT), citing an analysis of financial statements.
According to the publication, analysts predicted that the departure of Western companies would “strangle the Russian economy,” but the Russian leadership “made other plans” and turned the boycott of foreign companies into “luck for the state.” At the same time, many foreign companies continue to operate in Russia because they do not want to lose the milliards they have invested over decades, the article says.
As an example of a transaction in which the state intervened, the NYT cites the attempt of the Dutch beer company Heineken to sell its Russian assets. The magazine, citing a person close to the negotiations, claims that Russian authorities refused to agree on a deal with the buyer of Heineken’s assets and transferred them to the Arnest perfume company Arnest Group, a packaging and consumer products maker based in Stavropol, Russia. The assets were sold for 1 euro and the deal resulted in losses of 300 million euros (about $325 million), Heineken said, adding that Arnest will take responsibility for Heineken’s 1.800 employees in Russia, guaranteeing their jobs for three years.
“Although it has taken much longer than we had hoped, this transaction secures the livelihoods of our employees and allows us to exit the country in a responsible manner,” Dolf van den Brink, chief executive of Heineken, said in a statement
These are good deals for us… You screwed up, you left. We picked it up inexpensively. “Thank you,” said Anton Pinsky, founder of the Pinskiy & Co holding, in a conversation with NYT, who, together with rapper Timati (real name Timur Yunusov), bought the Russian business of the Starbucks coffee chain, and then the local assets of the Domino’s pizzeria chain.
In August 2023, Reuters, citing its informants, reported that some companies, when trying to sell their businesses, are faced with a requirement to provide additional discounts, after which they receive a “green light” from the government to sell assets. According to one of the interlocutors, the commission is “unwinding” some transactions, explaining that the cost estimate should be 20-30% lower.