When historians come to write about the lasting impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they should leaf through the annual reports of European companies. The Financial Times reported last Sunday that Europe’s biggest businesses had so far taken a direct hit of more than €100bn to profits as a result of quitting or scaling back their Russian operations. In fact, this is merely a fraction of the true cost.
Of the 609 annual reports and financial statements we examined, 176 companies took one-off charges. But even in the statements of the 433 that took no charges, almost all mentioned the punishing hit to profits of either soaring energy and raw material prices or supply chain disruptions that followed Russia’s aggression last year. Many also mentioned a notable increase in cyber attacks. Others said consumers were moving away from environmentally sustainable products to save money at a time of record inflation.
Some were comprehensive in their descriptions. Dutch supermarket group Ahold Delhaize spoke of “rising costs across the value chain . . . supply chain delays and labour shortages”. These developments had hit “balance sheet valuations, results and cash flow. Increasing interest rates mainly impacts the Company’s lease liabilities, pension obligations and self-insurance provision, and rising prices increases pressure on the profit margins”. In other words, hardly a corner of the business was left untouched.