Most Austrian companies are still active in Russia. Reports even speak of investments in the billions. So there should still be 41 companies active on site.
Even more than a year after the start of Russia’s offensive war against Ukraine, the vast majority of Austrian companies are still operating in Russia, reports the ORF business magazine “ECO”, which is listed by Yale University, the Kyiv School of Economics and the University of St. Gallen and has contacted all companies involved. As a result, 41 of the 59 companies are still active in Russia, albeit to a lesser extent in some cases.
Three companies have now completely left Russia, 13 are currently withdrawing or have ceased their activities. According to “ECO”, two companies appearing on the lists of the universities stated that they had never been active in Russia.
Hardly any investments are withdrawn
The investment stocks of Austrian companies in Russia calculated by the National Bank also show that Austrian companies have hardly withdrawn investments from Russia since the start of the war. According to her, the total value of investments in Russia in 2021 amounted to 6.3 billion euros, before falling to 6 billion euros at the end of 2022, a decrease of 5 percent.
“This indicates that the information is actually correct, according to which only a few Austrian companies have recently completely withdrawn from Russia,” Mario Holzner, director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, told “ECO”.
Recently, the RBI Group, a subsidiary of Austria’s Raiffeisenbank, was criticized when it released its 2022 business figures. After taxes, the company posted a profit of 3.8 billion euros. With about 2.1 billion euros, the lion’s share of this went to Russia.
At the general meeting of Raiffeisen Bank International in late March, RBI boss Johann Strobl announced that RBI plans to try to sell or spin off its Russian operations. “Both options are relatively unrealistic,” said Florian Beckermann, representative of small investors, in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal”.
Austria opposes an EU trend. Many allied nations have kept their relations with Russia to a minimum. Taking into account previous sanctions against individuals imposed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the EU sanctioned a total of 1473 individuals and 207 entities.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
