Two of Silgan’s facilities in Russia have been temporarily nationalized by the Russian government.
President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order July 11 for the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) to take over “temporary administration” of the two facilities, according to Russian government documents. It did not disclose for how long the government would assume management control. The two metal packaging sites named — one in the Moscow area and the other in Adygea — are owned by two separate Austrian metal packaging subsidiaries of U.S.-based Silgan.
Silgan did not respond to a request for comment.
In April 2023, Putin signed a decree allowing the Russian government to take over the management of companies’ assets as a security measure amid the country’s war in Ukraine, according to Reuters. The decree stopped short of allowing the government to actually seize the property owners’ assets, simply saying that the “external management” would disable the companies’ rights to make business management decisions. The decree said such measures were temporary and necessary to respond to the United States and others it deemed “unfriendly and contrary to international law.”
Earlier this year, Putin again spoke about nationalizing companies as a means of national defense. As of April, at least 40 demands to nationalize more than 180 private companies had been filed with Russian courts since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Last year, Silgan ceased operations at its two plants in Russia following pressure from watchdog groups calling on it and other U.S.-based companies to stop doing business in Russia in light of the war in Ukraine. Despite stopping operations at those sites, the company did not announce that it would divest them. Packaging companies including Amcor, Ball, Huhtamaki, International Paper and Mondi divested their Russian holdings since the war began.
Silgan executives had said on their January earnings call that the company’s largest business, metal containers, declined 10% year over year in Q4 2023, excluding a 2% impact from Russian sales in 2022. The company reported that it incurred $73.8 million in rationalization costs in 2022, primarily related to writing off net assets of Russian operations, and a $54.3 million year-over-year reduction in metal container net sales in 2023 due to shutting down the two facilities.
Silgan is scheduled to announce its second quarter earnings on July 31.
