Vladimir Putin has signed a presidential decree placing Nestlé‘s Russian assets under temporary administration, making the Nestlé Russia assets seized among the Kremlin’s largest takeovers of foreign corporate property since at least 2024. The decree covers French supermarket chain Auchan as well.
Nestlé makes a broad range of household food and drink brands, including KitKat, Nescafé and Cheerios. The company said on Friday it was “assessing the situation and its options” following the decree, which was issued late on Thursday.
What Nestlé said
In a statement, Nestlé said: “Nestlé is committed to taking all necessary steps to protect its rights and ensure continuity of business operations in the interests of all stakeholders, particularly its employees.” The company has not yet announced any specific course of action.
Nestlé has run businesses in Russia since 1995. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 it has scaled back its operations there, but still operates six manufacturing sites and employs around 7,000 workers in the country. Its Russian business is thought to generate around two billion Swiss francs (£1.81 billion) in annual revenues, which accounts for approximately 2% of the group’s total global sales.
Nestlé Russia assets seized and transferred to newly formed company
According to Ukrainska Pravda, the assets of both Nestlé and Auchan are to be forcibly transferred to the management of a joint-stock company called LEV Management. What makes that detail stand out is the company’s age: Ukrainska Pravda reports that LEV Management was only registered in Moscow in October 2024, meaning it is a very recently created entity now set to oversee two of the world’s most recognisable consumer brands on Russian soil.
That raises questions that neither the decree nor Russian authorities have publicly answered: who controls LEV Management, and what happens to the assets if the temporary administration is not reversed?
Part of a broader pattern
Russia changed its laws to allow the state to take control of shareholdings held by companies deemed “unfriendly” to Russia. The Kremlin has already used those powers against a number of other large international food and drink businesses, including Carlsberg, Danone, and AB InBev, the brewer behind Stella Artois and Budweiser.
The move on Nestlé and Auchan comes against a backdrop of mounting tensions between Russia and Europe. More than 1,000 firms left Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but some well-known names chose to remain. Cadbury owner Mondelez and PepsiCo are among those that have continued operating in the country.
The seizure is thought to mark the Kremlin’s largest single takeover of foreign corporate assets since at least 2024, given the combined scale of Nestlé and Auchan’s Russian operations.
What this means in practice
Temporary administration, in the Russian legal context, means the state appoints an outside manager to run the business rather than immediately transferring ownership outright. For Nestlé’s roughly 7,000 Russian employees, the company says its priority is ensuring business continuity. Whether that commitment can be honoured while a state-appointed administrator controls day-to-day operations is one of the central questions the company now faces.
Nestlé’s next formal move will be watched closely, given the scale of what is at stake: almost £1.81 billion in annual revenues and three decades of operations built up since the company first entered Russia in 1995. The firm has said only that it is assessing all necessary steps to protect its rights, leaving the precise form of any legal or commercial challenge unclear for now.
