Following the publication of ECCM Bank’s right of reply to my story about its parent company Kronospan, its company representative stated to me that Kronospan divested from all of its assets in Belarus and Russia in August 2022.
I challenged him about this statement because Kronospan’s statement published in April 2023 only says “separation” and not “divestment” or “sale” while previously in December, the company’s CEO was saying that the company will increase its investment in Russia.
Strange is an understatement. Contradictory is the actual word. I asked the company representative to speak to Peter Kiandl himself and I was told that Peter Kiandl retired. The new CEO is Ukrainian and she has a career working in the company’s Ukrainian division.
What’s interesting to note is that Western companies divesting from Russia were handed punitive measures by the Russian government, as already noted with the example of Raiffeisen Bank. There’s no mention of any disputes between Kronospan and the Russian government in the press. There are press reports however, even by Interfax that state Kronospan sold its Belarus division, to the Emirati Fund the Causa Foundation, which is the same fund that allegedly bought Kronospan’s assets in Russia. Interfax does not have a report on Causa Foundation buying Kronospan Russia, and only has the interview with the previous company’s CEO Peter Kiandl.
I will still try to get comments from Peter Kiandl. The company representative did not deny or confirm whether the Interfax report is false, but Peter Kiandl should be able to answer this.
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