"Vičiūnų Group sold its business in Russia and other Eastern markets for EUR 100 million last year

The Vičiūnai Group, partly owned by the Mayor of Kaunas, Visvaldas Matijošaitis, sold its business in Russia and other eastern markets for just over EUR 100 million in April last year.

Dainius Matijošaitis, a member of the board of directors of the Vičiūnai Group, confirmed this to BNS on Friday when asked to comment on the data available to BNS and on the possible amount of the deal calculated from the companies' reports.

According to the agreement of the parties, the value of the transaction, which took place in April last year, has not yet been disclosed.

„The part of the business operating in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other Russian-speaking markets (excluding Ukraine) was sold at the beginning of last year for, roughly speaking, three times the EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) generated by that part of the business, which in total amounts to about 100 million euros and a bit, “, – said D. Matijošaitis.

He said that, according to the group's structure at the time, some companies had been sold by the „Vičiūnai Group“, others by „VG Holding“, its manager, and that collecting the data from the reports of the individual companies distorted the picture considerably.

„We won't name the exact amounts because there were many additional components – various transaction-related costs, the daily changing exchange rate of the Russian rouble, etc.“, – said Matijošaitis.

„Accounting-wise, the company made a loss on the transaction, as the book value of the shares was slightly higher than the transaction amount,“ – added one of the executives from the „Vichyunai Group“–  .

D. According to Matijošaitis, the Group lost much larger sums in this transaction, but we have definitively closed this topic and any associations of the Vičiūnai Group with Russia more than a year ago and we do not plan to return to this topic or to comment on it in detail.

„Vichyunai Group“, according to the 2024 Annual Report, will acquire the Kaliningrad Crab Sticks and Fish Products Factory „Vichyunai-Rus“ and the trading company „BaltKo“ (100% each). The sale of the company's shares in the East (100 per cent of the shares) and other indirectly controlled companies was made for EUR 76.7 million, according to experts who consulted BNS.

The group said in a report that it made a profit of EUR 70.5 million on their sale, with a book value of EUR 6.2 million. 

According to the report of „VG Holding“ at the time, „VG Holding“ received approximately EUR 25.4 million for the sale of the Russian companies „Fort Trans Logistika“, „LK Centrus“, „Frost logistics“, „RefTerminal“, „ViciRusTrans“ and other companies in Eastern Europe. Experts who have consulted BNS have estimated that the value of the investment was EUR 25 million.

The company reported a profit of EUR 6.95 million from the transaction, while the book value of the shares in the companies was EUR 18.5 million. 

The Group was profitable last year and paid dividends  

„VG Holding“ bounced back from a loss-making 2023 to post a net profit of EUR 13.75 million. At the same time, „Vičiūnų Gruppe“ made a net profit of €100.62 million, 17.7 times more than in 2023 (€5.685 million), according to a report filed with the Centre of Registers.  

„VG Holding“ paid a dividend of EUR 5 million for 2023 to its two shareholders – V. Matijošaitis and Liudas Skieras last year. The „Vičiūnų grupė“ did not pay dividends to the same shareholders in the years 2023-2024, and it has not published a draft profit distribution for this year, according to the companies' accounts.  

„Vichyunai Group“ sold its crab stick factory in Russia's Kaliningrad region, as well as its logistics and trading businesses in seven other eastern countries to Russia's Ocean Group“ in April last year, for a total of 15 companies. 

D. Matijošaitis told BNS in an interview at the time that "the deal is not a happy one for us" – – it is worse than the pessimistic forecasts he had made a few years ago – according to them, the group expected to receive around EUR 100 million less than it would have received in a sale under normal market conditions.

„The owners of the Vichyun Group“ have been trying to sell the business in Russia since the spring of 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. 

V. Matijošaitis and Skierus each own 50% of „VG Holding“.