The largest Western companies that continued to operate in Russia after Putin's invasion of Ukraine sharply increased their profits in 2022, according to a study by the Novaya Gazeta Evropa. From this money, they will have to pay a tax on excess profits to the budget, which will amount to between 33 and 67 billion rubles.
Source: The Bell
Based on the analysis of financial statements, the publication compiled the top 100 companies from "unfriendly" countries in terms of the amount of profit they received from Russian business in 2022.
The French oil and gas company Total earned the most in Russia, selling stakes in some Russian projects and abandoning oil contracts, but not completely leaving Russia. As a result, Total's net profit doubled to 269 billion rubles year-on-year.
British Petroleum, a British fuel company, took second place, earning more than 150 billion rubles (+35%).
Raiffeisen Bank was in third place. Its net profit increased 2.7 times to RUB 141 billion. This is the second best result in the industry after Sberbank, the publication notes. The Austrian bank made money on the fact that the largest Russian financial organizations were disconnected from information exchange systems, including SWIFT, due to sanctions.
PepsiCo, which increased its net profit by 3 times to 45 billion rubles, and Japan Tobacco, which increased its net profit by 1.5 times to 43 billion rubles, round out the top 5.
In addition to taxes, companies with a net profit of more than 1 billion rubles, with the exception of the oil and gas and coal sectors, will have to pay a one-time fee to the Russian budget – the so-called windfall tax. In total, the Russian government wants to collect 300 billion rubles from businesses in the form of one-time payments.