Nestle removes £1.5bn of Russian assets after business seized by Putin

Nestle has unveiled a 1.6 billion Swiss francs (£1.46 billion) hit to its balance sheet from losing control of its operations in Russia after the business was seized by president Vladimir Putin.

The Swiss food giant – which is behind brands like KitKat, Nescafe and Cheerios – nonetheless said its sales had grown in the third quarter, despite increasing prices at a slower rate.

Nestle said a presidential decree had placed its Russian business under temporary external administration last month.

“The group remains the legal owner of the assets,” it said.

“As we currently do not have control of the management of the operations in Russia, from the end of September 2026, the business is no longer being consolidated by Nestle SA.”

This indicates it has stopped including the Russian assets within its balance sheet.

The Kremlin takeover of Nestle’s Russian assets, alongside those of French supermarket chain Auchan, is thought to be largest of foreign corporate assets since at least 2024.

Nestle has run businesses in Russia since 1995 but has trimmed its operations there since the war with Ukraine started.

The business currently makes up about 2% of the group’s global annual sales and 3-4% of its underlying trading operating profit.

The company said there was no impact to its third quarter sales – between July and September – but it had “derecognised” net assets of around 1.6 billion Swiss francs (£1.46 billion) on taking the Russian assets off its balance sheet.

However, it said the move would have a limited financial impact on its underlying results for 2026.

Meanwhile, Nestle revealed its sales totalled 22.76 billion Swiss francs (£20.71 billion) for the third quarter of 2026, with sales growth driven by a 1.1% increase in pricing, while it saw real internal growth of 2.8%.

Nestle said price rises had moderated over the year, having put through bigger hikes to its products in previous years.

Sales growth was partly led by its coffee products – which includes brands Nescafe and Starbucks by Nespresso – after raising prices at the start of the year.

It also flagged a stronger performance for pet food, which includes brands Felix and Dentalife, and US frozen food brands like Hot Pockets.