Unilever finally ditching Russian business after years of criticism

Unilever is finally ditching its Russian business after years of criticism for continuing to sell ice-creams in the warmongering country.

The consumer giant – whose brands include Magnum, Wall’s and Ben & Jerry’s, as well as Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise – sparked outrage by refusing to pull out of the country in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine over two years ago.

But Russian media now say a sale has been agreed with chemicals group Arnest.

The deal is speculated to be worth between £300m and £334m after a 50 per cent discount on asset sales under Russian law.

Arnest president Alexey Sagal has been one of the Russian businessmen to cash in on Western firms exiting the country. He has bought the Russian units of drinks packaging firm Ball’s and brewer Heineken.

Unilever declined to comment last night. Russian business publications Kommersant and RBC said the deal has been submitted to the Kremlin’s subcommittee on foreign investments for approval. The government has not formally approved yet but is ready to accept, two unnamed sources told the Financial Times.

The Ukraine government dubbed Unilever an ‘international sponsor of war’ on a list of companies which were still operating in Russia.

Campaigners argue Unilever is indirectly funding the war chest through business taxes.

Unliver boss Hein Schumacher, who took over from Alan Jope in July 2023, had insisted that staying in Russia was ‘the last bad option’. Leaving could mean the business falls into Russian hands, Schumacher and his team argued. The firm had stopped advertising and importing to the country.

Mark Dixon, founder of charity Moral Ratings Agency, which aims to get firms out of Russia, said: ‘It is interesting that a payment of half a billion dollars might help [Unilever] do the moral thing.

‘While an exit would be good news, we should never forget that Unilever has been supporting the Russian economy at the rate of half a billion pounds a year which is enough to pay for a thermobaric rocket every nine days or an Iranian drone every 17 minutes. It gets no medal for dancing with the devil for two-and-a-half years.’

The Mail on Sunday revealed last August that FTSE 100 giant Coca-Cola HBC refused to close factories in Russia, and switched to selling a local knock-off cola drink.

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