Revenues of Western companies in Russia increased for the second year in a row

In 2023, the profits of the 100 largest foreign companies in Russia reached 1.3 trillion rubles. Novaya Gazeta Europe writes about this.

Journalists note that this is 40% more than in the last pre-war year 2021. Then the profit of Western companies was 383 billion rubles less. In 2022, as previously calculated by New Europe, the income of Western enterprises increased by one and a half times compared to 2021.

85% of the total profit in 2023 (1.1 trillion rubles) came from the 20 largest companies. Half of this amount was earned by three companies - TotalEnergies, BP and Raiffeisen.

Journalists noted that the Hungarian OTP bank grew richer the fastest. He increased net profit by about 200 times, from 133 million rubles in 2022 to almost 25 billion rubles in 2023. The bank itselfsaid that the reason was an updated strategy, which led to “a significant increase in profits in retail lending and transaction business.” In second place was the Polish manufacturer Can-Pack - its profit from Russian business in 2023 increased by 400%.

“New Europe” names 37 enterprises as the most successful, those that announced they were leaving the Russian market, but in fact continued to increase their profits. In 2023, they earned 760 billion rubles, and a year earlier - 682 billion. Journalists named the British energy concern BP and the Austrian bank Raiffeisen as the largest enterprises from this group.

43 enterprises applied the “wait it out in silence” strategy. At the end of 2023, they earned 400 billion rubles. This is 15 billion rubles less than in the first year of the war in Ukraine, journalists calculated.

Among such enterprises is the French concern TotalEnergies. In Russia, he owns almost a fifth of the largest private gas producer NOVATEK, as well as shares in the Yamal LNG (20%) and Arctic LNG 2 (10%) plants under his control. TotalEnergies refused to purchase from the Arctic LNG 2 plant only after the sanctions imposed by the United States. Journalists point out that, according to Bloomberg, the EU plans to ban European companies only from reselling Russian gas to other markets, and not from exporting it to Europe, which will allow TotalEnergies to continue to make money from NOVATEK.

However, not all foreign companies from the top 100 showed profit growth last year, notes New Europe. 12 enterprises suffered losses amounting to 77 billion rubles.

Basically, the income of Western companies in Russia is frozen by the Kremlin. Because of this, they stimulate the Russian economy during the war, journalists noted.

The benefits from foreign companies are mainly received by the Russian budget, from which the war in Ukraine is financed. They transferred more than 400 billion rubles of income tax there in 2023. According to journalists' calculations, this is approximately 1.5% of last year's budget revenues.

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