Russia has placed three more Japan Tobacco International units under temporary management, one day after taking over the company's main plants. Tokyo pushed back diplomatically as Japan Tobacco shares sold off.
Russia moved three additional local units of Japan Tobacco Inc. under Russian temporary management a day after seizing the company's primary manufacturing plants, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
Second decree reaches sales and heated-tobacco arms
President Vladimir Putin ordered the transfer of the three Japan Tobacco International (JTI) entities to the temporary oversight of JSC Industrial Assets, according to a presidential decree published late Friday.
The new decree covers a holding entity with a stake in one of the previously seized manufacturing facilities, a tobacco sales and distribution arm, and an operating company that imports and markets heated-tobacco devices.
Thursday's decree took the factories
The Friday order followed a Thursday decree that handed the same Russian entity control of cigarette factories in St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don, plus tobacco-processing facilities in the Lipetsk and Leningrad regions.
Those expropriations triggered a sharp sell-off in Japan Tobacco shares on Friday. Tokyo, where the government legally holds at least a one-third equity stake in the group, pushed back diplomatically.
Part of a wider pattern of seizures
JTI, which makes brands including Winston and Camel, has operated in Russia since 1999. It controls roughly 40% of the domestic market by volume and employs approximately 4,000 workers across the country.
The move follows an executive framework introduced in April 2023 to retaliate against Western and allied sanctions. The JTI seizures came after similar decrees targeting Russian assets owned by Nestlé SA, Metro AG and Auchan.
Source: Investing.com
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