Overview
- President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday that moves Metro Russia into “temporary management,” handing day-to-day control to a company called UK Torg RUS while Metro AG remains the formal owner.
- Corporate filings show UK Torg RUS was registered earlier this month and lists Metro Russia’s local chief executive, Johannes Tholey, as its CEO, creating an opaque link between the new manager and the retailer’s Russian leadership.
- Metro said it no longer has operational control and is analysing the decree’s effects for its roughly 91 stores, about 9,000 employees, and reported 2024/25 Russian sales of about €2.6 billion with €152 million in local cash.
- The move follows a pattern that grew out of a 2023 presidential order allowing the state to place foreign assets under temporary management and echoes recent seizures of Nestlé, Auchan and other Western firms’ Russian operations.
- The transfer increases the risk of blocked sales, steep write-downs or effective expropriation for foreign companies and could disrupt pay, supply chains and store operations in Russia while diplomatic tensions with Germany escalate.