(Bloomberg) -- Carlsberg A/S agreed to sell its Russian business unit Baltika Breweries, one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ending government control of the division.
The Danish brewer said in a statement Tuesday that it would receive a cash consideration for the deal and will retain Baltika’s shareholdings in Carlsberg’s Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan units.
Russia approved the sale for 34 billion rubles ($320.9 million), according to a person close to the Kremlin, who declined to be identified because the matter is private. The value of the sale was first reported by Reuters.
Russian authorities approved the deal because the buyers and sellers agreed on the terms, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, without elaborating.
It will be a management buyout that is expected to complete in the next few days. The new controlling shareholder will be a company owned equally by two longstanding Baltika employees.
“With today’s announcement, we will settle numerous lawsuits and IP rights issues related to Baltika,” Carlsberg Chief Executive Officer Jacob Aarup-Andersen said in a statement.
The announcement puts an end to months of uncertainty for Carlsberg. Its Russian assets were taken under government control in July 2023, after the brewer announced it had struck a deal to sell them. The company then terminated all license agreements to sell its beer brands in Russia.
(Updates to include comment from Kremlin spokesman.)
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