OREANDA-NEWS  Swedish IKEA has closed a deal to sell its last production site in Russia — a furniture factory in the Novgorod region — to the co-owner of St. Petersburg Slotex Vadim Osipov. Two other enterprises went to the timber company from Komi "Luzales". According to Kommersant, the total amount of all transactions could amount to about 15 billion rubles— a quarter less than the amount requested by the seller. Large companies from other industries were also interested in factories, but some of them did not buy enterprises due to IKEA's refusal to transfer the rights to furniture produced in the Russian Federation.

Invest Plus has closed a deal for the purchase of IKEA Industry Novgorod, an IKEA production site in Podberezye, Novgorod Region. This was reported to Kommersant by a representative of the St. Petersburg Slotex. The co-owner of this company, Vadim Osipov, according to SPARK-Interfax, owns 99% of Invest Plus. The deal to buy out the IKEA factory was made out to an SPV company, says Elena Feoktistova, managing partner of RP-Consulting, which means that the business will develop independently and will not be part of Slotex. This was confirmed by Kommersant and Mr. Osipov.

Slotex was founded in the early 1990s in St. Petersburg by Evgeny Osipov. After Mr. Osipov's departure from life, the business was transferred, among others, to his son, Vadim Osipov. The company produces furniture plates, countertops and facades for kitchen furniture, also supplied by IKEA, at its four sites in the Leningrad region. According to its own data, revenue in 2021 amounted to 5.8 billion rubles.

IKEA a year ago announced its complete withdrawal from the Russian market due to the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict. Last week, the deal to buy two IKEA enterprises — in Tikhvin, Leningrad Region and Krasnaya Polyana, Kirov Region — was closed by the timber processing company Luzales, as RBC was informed by the head of its board of directors Ruslan Semenyuk. IKEA previously called the Slotex structure and Luzales "suitable buyers" of their assets in Russia.