What difficulties will face the nationalization of Western companies in Russia

21

Against the backdrop of harsh anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Moscow for the start of a military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, the question arose of the possibility of nationalizing a number of Western companies that have suspended or ceased their activities in our country. Now we are talking about 60 legal entities, including Apple, Volkswagen, Microsoft, IKEA, IBM, Shell, Porsche, McDonald's, Toyota, H&M and others, but in the future this list may be expanded. An inherently sound idea can run into dangerous pitfalls in practice.

The problem is that in Russia it is difficult to find a serious company that does not have a share of foreign capital or is not registered abroad. For example, through foreign offshore companies, Metalloinvest (extraction and processing of iron ore, ferrous metallurgy), Pipe Metallurgical Company (ferrous metallurgy), Sibur Holding (associated gas processing, petrochemicals), Russneft (mining and oil refining), Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (non-ferrous metallurgy), Siberian Coal Energy Company (coal mining), Eurochem (chemical production), Severstal (ferrous metallurgy), Rusal (bauxite mining , production of alumina, production of aluminum), Norilsk Nickel (metallurgy), Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works (ferrous metallurgy), Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (mining, preparation of iron ore, ferrous metallurgy), ChTPZ Group (ferrous, non-ferrous metallurgy), Rusenergosbyt (power industry), Transmashholding (transport engineering), Glavstroy Corporation (construction), Mostotrest (construction), Polyus Gold (gold mining),Acron (chemical industry), Sollers (automotive industry), Uralchem ​​(mineral fertilizers), Eurocement (production of building materials), Mechel (mining, ferrous metallurgy), Russian Copper Company (non-ferrous metallurgy ), Rusagro (agriculture, food production), Pharmstandard (pharmacology), Cherkizovo (food industry), Power Machines and many, many others. In the same place, offshore, some well-known domestic agricultural holdings vegetate.



In addition to Russian companies registered abroad, there are many “native” brands on our market that actually belong to Western corporations. For example, Nestle owns such trademarks as Rossiysky chocolate and 48 kopeck ice cream, Danone - Rastishka and Prostokvashino, Pepsico - Cheerful Milkman and House in the Village dairy products, Essentuki drinks, Orchard, Ya, Tonus, Beloved, Coca-Cola - Dobry juice, Mug and Barrel kvass, Craft Foods - Vozdushny chocolate, Prichuda cake, Yubileinoye cookies , Unilever - Beseda tea, Baltimore ketchup, Heiniken - Okhota and Three Bears beer, Carlsberg - Zhigulevskoye, Nevskoye and Baltika beers, Khlebny Krai kvass, Inbev - beer " Siberian Crown" and "Klinskoe". The domestic auto giant Avto-VAZ has long been owned by the French-Japanese concern Renault-Nissan. Etc. This list is far from exhaustive. It is presented only to make it clear how deep the Russian economy absorbed by big Western capital.

And now we need to talk about how the designated nationalization of directly foreign companies operating in our country can take place. It's still more difficult here.

For example, what to do with McDonald's? The fact is that this network operates through a franchise business model. In other words, this Russian company first pays a large lump-sum fee to the head office, and then pays a monthly royalty of 12,5% ​​of the profit. In return, the local partner gets the right to work under the McDonald's trademark and with its branded products. If anyone will be hit by the closure of this fast-food restaurant chain, it will be its Russian franchisees. No, we do not defend McDonald's, we urge to think about the rights and legitimate interests of those of our compatriots who managed to invest in this business, and not to cut off the shoulder.

Approximately the same can be said about other Western brands that are proposed to be nationalized. Something the author of the lines has not heard about the factories of Apple, Microsoft or IBM, which would produce in Russia smartphones, laptops, microprocessors and other gadgets and electronic components so necessary for our country. They simply sell ready-made products and services. IKEA and H&M are just retail chains. What to nationalize? Warehouses and shops? They are probably not owned, but on a long-term lease.

Slightly more promising is the possibility of nationalizing the factories of Volkswagen, Toyota and other automakers from countries that have imposed tough anti-Russian sanctions. At least there are real production facilities and assembly equipment. But, alas, everything is not easy here.

We are not authorized to manufacture Volkswagen vehicles without the consent of the Volkswagen Group. Intellectual property and all that. Give the nationalized factories to the Chinese comrades? Theoretically, it is possible, but in practice it could complicate Beijing's relations with its Western partners. Use the factories of Volkswagen, Toyota and others to start producing your own cars? Probably, it is possible, but the question arises, what specific cars? Avto-VAZ is owned by the Renault-Nissan concern. All other domestic passenger brands are more likely to be dead than alive.

Create new ones from scratch? It is possible, but there will be a problem with the components. Our systemic liberals in power never bothered to achieve 100% localization from foreign manufacturers, and all key corners and units are supplied to the assembly line from abroad. Creating and starting mass production of a modern car engine or automatic transmission is a very non-trivial task, especially in the context of Western sanctions. And they will, because they will have to massively violate foreign patents that protect intellectual property rights.

In general, everything is difficult. Given the depth of the abyss into which the Russian economy has been driven by "liberal reformers", it is already worth talking not even about the nationalization of Western companies, but about the transition to planned methods of managing it. Otherwise, we'll just drown.
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  1. Oleg_5
    Oleg_5
    +5
    11 March 2022 12: 37
    As I understand it, the proposed option is "we continue to work as if nothing had happened."
    Under the same brands/brands.
    No deduction of profits and / or copyrights to the owners.
    1. Bulanov
      Bulanov
      +1
      11 March 2022 14: 12
      What's stopping you from opening new brands? For example, Russian sportswear? There are fabrics, there are machines, there are also seamstresses. Designers? There will be. And now the trade mark "Eurasia" is opened. All sports teams from Russia are recommended to switch to it. And if there is excellent quality, then Adidas with Puma, Nike and others can be squeezed out. For starters in the Asian market.
      1. Oleg_5
        Oleg_5
        +1
        11 March 2022 14: 23
        Well, the name is the tenth thing.
        But here it’s still not quite from their own fabrics and not quite on their own machines ...
      2. Awaz
        Awaz
        -2
        12 March 2022 09: 42
        in our country there are a lot of clothes of really Russian manufacturers, but it is always sewn in China. In the same China, there are a lot of own clothing manufacturers, a fairly decent level, but they don’t bring it to Russia because it turns out to be a little expensive, since the ruble is constantly falling. Ours, what is produced in China, cannot sell clothes in the Russian Federation at a price of 50 or more bucks per unit, since there is no reputation and the population has not become very rich in recent years. Therefore, the price is from 10 to 50 basically. To get the maximum profit, you have to do it from the lowest-grade material. Thus, you will never earn a reputation. Our people survived the fat years and traveled around Europe and the world and saw in the country promoted foreign brands and their clothes and shoes and quality. Shitty cheap stuff won't lure them in. It is not profitable for our manufacturers to make expensive and high-quality products. Here is such a dilemma. Or wait until the generation of those who have seen a normal life leaves and already teach young people to this shit ..
        1. Artyom76
          Artyom76
          0
          12 March 2022 13: 28
          Your logic is strange - the people are used to quality, but they cannot afford domestic high-quality clothes. I understand what you mean that there is no reputation yet, but when there are no more imported clothes, either take a domestic manufacturer or go naked. The main thing is to start.

          We will definitely decide on clothes. Most of all, we will have problems in the electronics industry, now thank the "buyers in the west." Although everything is not clear here, Russia is also involved in the chains of creation of many electronic components, which they cannot solve in five months. Then they will collapse too.
          1. Awaz
            Awaz
            -1
            12 March 2022 14: 05
            high-quality clothes are not profitable for the Russian manufacturer. That's all I wanted to say. If they produced high-quality clothes, even if a little more expensive than even the average price, they would be appreciated by modern times, if the manufacturers did not start to become impudent. There is such an example about Black Star. Very good clothes for young people were at the initial level of production. Although the price is too high, but some quality was noticed, but quickly everything went to naught. Now cheap materials have gone and the quality of sewing and design of dubious quality and still insane price ...
  2. zloybond
    zloybond
    +4
    11 March 2022 12: 50
    This has already been stated. that Russia can give a damn about the intellectual property of foreign inserts. What else to suck.
    1. Oleg_5
      Oleg_5
      0
      11 March 2022 15: 15
      just intellectual?
      1. zloybond
        zloybond
        +1
        11 March 2022 15: 45
        I think everything will gradually get into operation, regardless of their foreign Wishlist and will work for our economy. Moreover, a return to a past life will not come in any case.
        1. Artyom76
          Artyom76
          +2
          12 March 2022 13: 29
          You are right, there is no return now and sooner or later it would have happened. We'll start earlier, we'll leave earlier, how hot it is.
  3. Bulanov
    Bulanov
    +2
    11 March 2022 13: 42
    The most important thing is to pay taxes and salaries. If they do not pay, then go bankrupt and resell to the State Reserve or to a new Russian joint-stock company.
  4. 123
    123
    +7
    11 March 2022 13: 52
    The problem is that in Russia it is difficult to find a serious company that does not have a share of foreign capital or is not registered abroad. So, for example, companies are managed through foreign offshore companies

    Uralchem, in my opinion, moved to about. Oktyabrsky, Kaliningrad region.
    https://www.putin-today.ru/archives/139172
    Rusal moved there in 2020.
    https://www.vedomosti.ru/business/news/2020/09/25/841210-rusal-zaregistrirovalsya-v-kaliningradskom-ofshore

    Norilsk Nickel is now on about. Russian
    https://secretmag.ru/news/krupneishii-vladelec-akcii-nornikelya-smenil-registraciyu-s-kipra-na-rossiyu-11-12-2021.htm

    NK "Russneft" seems to be registered in Moscow.
    https://www.rusprofile.ru/id/4258164

    This is from what I remember, "I did not check the entire list of cosmopolitans", but something tells me that these are not all inaccuracies.
    In my opinion, the depth of the abyss that has opened before us is again exaggerated.
    Maybe more carefully how it is necessary to predict future disasters?
  5. Sergey Latyshev
    Sergey Latyshev
    -6
    11 March 2022 14: 11
    All this is nonsense.
    We have capitalism. Property is sacred. Money doesn't smell.
    So nothing will happen. You can transfer a Russian company, such as Magnit, to your own (and then foreign shares will remain), or hack an investment fund (remember Magnitsky), - you can always find an interpretation of violations there.
    And try to rudely touch someone bigger from behind a hillock - right there, according to claims, they will begin to arrest the property of Russia that came to hand (as it has happened more than once)
  6. Mikhail L.
    Mikhail L.
    0
    11 March 2022 15: 41
    ...Difficulties?
    ... There is nothing to cast a shadow over the wattle fence: the nationalization of foreign companies implies their transfer to state ownership.
    ...At the same time: The state appoints an external (its) manager and the management continues to work under his leadership.
    ...And no conventions, like patent law, in the conditions of a de facto economic war!
    ... "Cadres decide everything!". (I. Stalin)
    ... Is there really a shortage of "smart heads" in the Russian Federation - capable, from natural resources, to create modern competitive products?
    ...Difficulties must be overcome!
  7. kriten
    kriten
    +2
    11 March 2022 19: 11
    The author, like Katz in the famous film, calls for urgent surrender. And the fact that many campaigns have chosen the place of registration from adversaries should be taken away from them if they themselves do not transfer the existing assets to their homeland. You can forget about foreign shareholders .. There are many difficulties, but you need to do it. We all try to hide behind the difficulties and do nothing. All these campaigns were only able to scrape and develop money from the budget, i.e. divide. All this top management can be driven safely. It is necessary not to recruit thieves, but to recruit workers. And this is all dividers write.
  8. Roma Phil
    Roma Phil
    -3
    11 March 2022 20: 08
    Here, Mr. Marzhetsky laid out everything in more detail. And indeed, probably, difficulties with the nationalization of Western companies will arise, and probably not only politicians who have ideas ripening will join this, but also international lawyers, economists, and most importantly, engineers and production managers. They will have to think about how to continue working in suspended plants and factories.
    And the "eXspert" Yuri Podolyaki, somehow everything turns out smoothly. Russia will take everything from the escaped Western investors and they will start all the stopped production themselves.
  9. mister-red
    mister-red
    +3
    11 March 2022 21: 56
    ...a Russian company first pays a large lump-sum contribution to the head office, and then pays monthly royalties in the amount of 12,5% ​​of profits. In return, the local partner gets the right to work under the McDonald's trademark and with its branded products. If anyone will be hit by the closure of this fast-food restaurant chain, it will be its Russian franchisees.

    The author went a little in the wrong steppe. In war as in war. It's easier with McDonald's. Refuse to pay for intellectual property, work on, changing the name a bit. If the office decides to return to Russia, it signs a document of waiver of royalties for the previous time and waiver of lawsuits. He pays for the entrance ticket a sum calculated in some way, for example, the same 12,5% ​​for each month of absence in the country, then it works fine. If they say no, then no.
  10. Xuli (o) Tebenado
    Xuli (o) Tebenado
    +2
    12 March 2022 08: 17
    ... Nestle owns such trademarks as Rossiysky chocolate and 48 kopeck ice cream, Danone - Rastishka and Prostokvashino, Pepsico - Cheerful Milkman and House in the Village dairy products, Yessentuki drinks , Orchard, Ya, Tonus, Beloved, Coca-Cola - Dobry juice, Mug and Barrel kvass, Craft Foods - Vozdushny chocolate, Prichuda cake, Yubileinoye cookies ”, Unilever - Beseda tea, Baltimore ketchup, Heiniken - Okhota and Three Bears beer, Carlsberg - Zhigulevskoye, Nevskoye and Baltika beers, Khlebny Krai kvass, Inbev - beer "Siberian Crown" and "Klinskoe".

    I won’t tell you for the whole of Odessa, as you know, Odessa is very large ...
    But personally, I do not use any of the above.
    About 20 years ago I tried Beseda tea: it was granular and disgusting in taste; ended up throwing it away.
    Chocolate "Russian" resembles plasticine.
    Beer "Hunting" gives off some kind of fortified bodyaga.

    All of the above - in the furnace!
    1. Awaz
      Awaz
      0
      12 March 2022 09: 30
      of all that is listed here, only Yubileynoye cookies are still very similar to what they did before. Anniversary, even 5 years ago, it somehow resembled what we ate in childhood. His peculiarity was some kind of tender fragility, for which I loved him very much.
      Everything else can hardly be called something edible. None of the types of beer that are listed can even be called beer. Bodyaga is unequivocal. Kvass, too, milk from the house, or yogurt, or milkman, of very dubious quality. Kefir and sour milk in general are obviously surrogates or are made from dry at best. Baltimore ketchup, if you read the composition, is a tinted and flavored starch jelly. such a product cannot be called ketchup.
      Why do we eat such rubbish? Because we have such a power in our country that allowed and encouraged the production of all this ...
  11. Enoch
    Enoch
    0
    12 March 2022 17: 35
    It turns out something like this: "- The car for the wife, the dacha - for the father-in-law. You have nothing, you are a beggar!"
    So what did the Poles help us at the helm?
  12. opportunist
    opportunist
    0
    17 March 2022 05: 14
    history takes revenge on those who destroyed the former socialist state single economic system. and they did all this because they wanted to travel in luxury yachts to the beaches of Miami. and now sanctions have hit even them. How can the Russian economy survive today from an international embargo? Because it is capitalist. The only solution is to get rid of this junta that rules us , by upheaval after the 90s.