Four more companies announced the suspension of business in Russia this weekend: Zara, PayPal, American Express and Danone. Among the biggest companies to cut ties with Putin’s country, oil companies caused the most damage.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a series of economic and financial sanctions in the international community against the country commanded by Vladimir Putin, its companies and citizens.
Russian banks were excluded from the international SWIFT payment system, and the country’s central bank was left without access to its international reserves of more than $630 billion.
The assets of Russia’s main oligarchs were blocked, and the country’s companies were excluded from the most important stock indices of emerging countries.
In addition, several multinational companies have suspended their business there. This weekend, payment companies PayPal and American Express announced the suspension of all their operations in the country.
Inditex, which owns fashion retailer Zara, said it would temporarily close its 502 stores in Russia, in addition to suspending its online operations in the country, but without giving the exact reason for the decision. Russia accounts for about 8.5% of the group’s total profit, before interest and taxes.
Finally, Danone, which has factories in Ukraine, said it had suspended all investment projects on Russian territory, with the exception of the production and distribution of in natura dairy products and infant nutrition.
But since the start of the conflict, giant companies have severed ties with Russia. In the oil and gas sector alone, which is extremely important in the country’s economy, BP, Shell and Exxon withdrew around US$ 30 billion in investments.
Here are the top 10 companies that have suspended business with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine:
1) Apple
Market cap: $2.7 trillion
Apple has stopped selling its products in Russia, as well as limiting and disabling some functions of Apple Maps in Ukraine, such as live traffic and incident data, to preserve the safety of Ukrainian citizens, the company said.
The company condemned the invasion and said all exports to Russian sales channels had been halted in the last week.
2) British Petroleum (BP)
Market cap: $96.1 billion
The first major energy company to announce that it was leaving Russia was also the country’s biggest foreign investor, British oil company BP.
Just days after the invasion, BP announced that it would end its 30-year partnership with Russian state oil company Rosneft, divesting its 20% stake in the company. The move could cost BP $25 billion and cut its global oil and gas production by a third.
3) Shell
Market cap: $200.84 billion
Just hours after BP’s decision, Shell said it would end its Russian operations, divesting from its joint ventures with Russian state energy company Gazprom and related entities.
4) ExxonMobil
Market cap: $342.54 billion
Last Tuesday (1st) it was the turn of another oil company, ExxonMobil, to announce that it would discontinue its oil and gas operations in Russia, valued at more than US$ 4 billion, in addition to starting its exit from the Sakhalin-1 venture. , one of the biggest cases of foreign direct investment in Russia.
5) HSBC
Market cap: $135 billion
The bank said it would gradually end its relations with a number of Russian banks, including the second largest, VTB, which has been targeted by international sanctions, according to Reuters. HSBC has annual revenues of US$15 million in Russia.
6) Volkswagen
Market cap: $107.45 billion
The German automaker said on Thursday it would suspend car deliveries to Russia immediately and halt vehicle production at two plants in the country.
Volkswagen has delivered 216,000 vehicles to Russia, about 2.4% of its global sales, according to The Wall Street Journal.
7) Disney
Market cap: $263.57 billion
Disney became the first major entertainment company to stop its movie releases in Russian cinemas.
8) Netflix
Market cap: US$163.307 billion
The streaming giant halted all its future projects and acquisitions in Russia following the invasion. Netflix also refused to show Russian state channels, in defiance of the country’s broadcasting laws.
Four Russian original productions were suspended, and production of a Russian series was halted. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, Netflix must have around one million subscribers in Russia.
9) Mastercard
Market cap: $336.9 billion
The world’s largest payment processor has blocked several Russian financial institutions, preventing them from using its payments network, due to sanctions.
Mastercard said it would work with regulators to adhere to compliance obligations.
10) Visa
Market cap: $450.25 billion
Competitor Visa also blocked Russian companies from using its network and pledged to respect economic sanctions.
Source: With Agencies