FABRIANO It has the bitter taste of an expropriation, a bolt of lightning in a sky marked by an exhausting war in the heart of the Old Continent. Kremlin President Vladimir Putin, who since February 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, has been engaged in a direct clash with the second largest state in Europe, nationalizes the Russian branch of Ariston and transfers it to Gazprom.
The same fate as the Italian company befalls Bosch, a German manufacturer of household appliances: the temporary management for both passes, as a result of a decree published yesterday, to Gazprom Domestic Systems, the company of the state white goods group, which will act as administrator .
History repeats itself: since the beginning of the conflict, Moscow has placed the assets of several Western companies under control.
The agency
What made the news bounce on the international scene was Interfax, the non-governmental press agency, based in the city of Red Square, one of the main ones after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The decree was posted on the official portal for legal information.
The plot
If the strategies, which generated the effects of the Kremlin’s interventionism in the Russian economy in times of war, are still shrouded in fog, the underlying plot refers to a move made already last year by Putin: he had signed another decree on the temporary transfer of Danone and Carlsberg branches to the Federal Agency for Property Management, Rosimushchestvo. The measure was adopted after the French and Danish companies had announced their intention to exit the Russian market.
98.56% of the shares of the Russian brewery Baltika, belonging to Carlsberg, and tens of thousands of shares in Danone were placed under the control of the Agency. In the case of Ariston and Bosch, however, management is transferred, again temporarily, to another industrial group, albeit controlled by the government.
The numbers
Leader of hi-tech and sustainable thermal comfort, the Fabriano multinational, listed on the stock exchange and chaired by Paolo Merloni, one of the historic brands of Italian industry, has yet to evaluate the business, management and managerial impacts of this measure. With a production site just outside St. Petersburg and a commercial network, the structure, between assets and workers, is only made in Russia and is intended to cover the domestic market.
A corollary that has so far guaranteed 100 million euros in turnover and a commitment to 350 employees. A scenario that would have, in the name of the market and employment levels, wanted to resist the tragedy of a conflict in a land that in 2014 had rewarded it with the Energy Efficiency Award for the best promotion of energy efficiency, renewable sources and of condensing boilers. Yes, it has the bitter taste of expropriation.
