Sweden’s Sandvik to wind down Russia business, book $98 million charge

OSLO (Reuters) – Swedish engineering group Sandvik will wind down its operation in Russia and book a non-recurring charge of 1 billion Swedish crowns ($98.3 million) in its second-quarter earnings report, the company said on Wednesday.

Sandvik put its Russian business on hold on Feb. 28 following the invasion of Ukraine, and has since assessed the situation.

A large number of Western companies have decided to leave Russia in recent months, some by selling their local business and others by closing it down.

In 2021, about 3.6% of Sandvik’s group revenue came from Russian customers, it said. The group has no production in the country but about 900 employees in sales and services.

The charge it will book consists of a 700 million crowns writedown and a 300 million crowns provision related to personnel costs.

“Depending on the progress of the wind-down procedures, additional costs may be incurred in the coming quarters,” Sandvik said.

($1 = 10.1684 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Stine Jacobsen)