CEO of BAT: Significant Losses from Selling Russian Business

BAT by Sophia
Dec.11.2023
CEO of BAT: Significant Losses from Selling Russian Business
Tadeu Marroco, CEO of British American Tobacco (BAT), stated that BAT has suffered significant losses in selling its Russian and Belarusian assets.

According to a Reuters report on December 6th, Tadeu Marroco, the CEO of British American Tobacco (BAT), stated that BAT suffered significant losses in selling its assets in Russia and Belarus.

 

In a trading update on December 6th, Marroco mentioned that the revenue BAT received represented only a small fraction of the true value of its business in Russia and Belarus.

 

BAT CEO Tadeu Marroco poses in a handout photo
Tadeu Marroco, the CEO of British American Tobacco (BAT)

 

In September of the previous year, BAT sold these assets to a consortium led by a local Russian management team, concluding an 18-month process of exiting the world's fourth-largest cigarette market, prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 

At the time, BAT did not disclose the sale price and did not reveal whether the deal included terms for the company to repurchase the business at a later date.

 

Marroco pointed out that due to restrictions imposed by Russian authorities, the company is unlikely to exercise the buy-back option in the sales contract.

 

The company had already confirmed impairment and associated costs of £629 million ($792 million) related to the sale when the transaction was announced.

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