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By Pekka Vanttinen | EURACTIV.com
The KONE Corporation, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, announced on Tuesday that it would divest its business in Russia to local management. It already began reducing activities in Russia, ceased deliveries and did not sign new orders. [Shutterstock/OnePixelStudio]
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The three major Finnish companies, KONE, Nokian Tyres and Ponsse, announced their exit from the Russian market on Tuesday after already starting to phase out activities there.
The KONE Corporation, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, announced on Tuesday that it would divest its business in Russia to local management. It already began reducing activities in Russia, ceased deliveries and did not sign new orders.
The deal with local management is expected to be finalised during the fourth quarter of this year, though the value of the transaction was not disclosed. KONE will deliver spare parts to Russia for three months after the agreement has been closed. The brand name KONE will not be used in Russia. KONE’s global sales share reached less than 1% in Russia, and the company had about 1,500 customers there.
Nokian Tyres was also among the companies that announced its exit from the Russian market due to the war in Ukraine. “Controlled exit preparations will start immediately, and the company will evaluate different options,” the company announced in a press release.
Operating in Russia since 2005, some 80% of the company’s passenger car tires were produced in the country. Russia and Asia have represented around 20% of net sales. Nokian Tyres said it will increase factory capacity in Finland and the US and aims to invest in new capacity in Europe.
Ponsse, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of forest machines, also announced its exit from the Russian market on Tuesday.
The company informed that it would sell its operations in Russia to OOO Bison, a company responsible for the retail of Ponsse forest machines in the country, but the price of the transaction, to be closed in the third quarter of 2022, was not disclosed.
Sales in Russia and Belarus accounted for around 20% of Ponsse’s net sales in 2021.
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