Beer giants Heineken, Carlsberg exit Russia

Yahoo Finance Live's Julie Hyman reports that beer giants Heineken and Carlsberg have pulled out of the Russian market amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: But that's not the only company that's in focus once again today because of Russia. A couple of the world's biggest breweries are now pulling out of the country, Brian Sozzi, Carlsberg and Heineken. And in this case, these guys are pretty exposed here. Carlsberg in particular said it makes about 13% of its revenue from Russia, so interesting here that they are making this move because it is a relatively big market.

At the same time, they say they're gonna sell their local businesses, Heineken and Carlsberg, that is. So I imagine, for all the companies that have said they're gonna exit the business there and sell, that's a little bit of a trickier proposition.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, this is coming at a hit, Julie. The Heineken maneuver will come at the expense of a $438 million charge to its operations. And, you know, it's not just these sin-type companies. Look, last week we saw Philip Morris. Russia represents about 10% of its annual shipments. It's now winding down operations in Russia. So it is an interesting time. If you're a beer drinker, if you're a cigarette smoker in Russia, unclear what you're going to do.

JULIE HYMAN: Well, there are other brewers that have stayed there, right? Anheuser-Busch InBev, for example, which, of course, makes Budweiser, has said it's gonna donate its profits that it makes from there. So that's sort of a middle line that some companies are toeing in order to try to keep supplies going into the country but not profiting from it. So that's kind of an interesting aspect.