Number of Russian-owned firms in the Netherlands has fallen sharply

• The number of Russian-owned firms has fallen sharply since 2014.
• Additional sanctions were imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after which the decline accelerated.
• Since then, most firms have relocated their headquarters or been wound up entirely.

Over the past decade, the number of Russian-owned firms in the Netherlands has fallen – from 80 in 2014 to 25 in 2024. The number of multinationals with a Russian majority stake fell the most sharply in the years after 2022, when the EU imposed additional sanctions on Russia. This decline contrasts with the general trend in the number of foreign multinationals, which rose by 37 percent over the same period. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on the latest figures.

The number of people employed in the Netherlands by Russian-owned firms fell from 1,276 in 2014 to 176 in 2024.

1 in 3 Russian firms active in financial services sector

In both 2014 and 2024, Russian-controlled firms were most likely to be active in financial services. In both years, approximately 1 in 3 Russian firms operated in this sector. Several Russian firms are also active in wholesale. In 2014, these firms were trading in various goods, including fuel, chemical products and other machinery. By 2024, 4 out of 5 Russian wholesale firms were trading in fuel and chemical products.

Three-quarters of firms closed down or relocated after 2021

Of the 62 Russian firms still operating in the Netherlands at the end of 2021, 39 percent had ceased trading by 2024. For 23 percent of these firms, control has remained unchanged and they are still controlled by a Russian parent company in 2024. The remaining formerly Russian-owned firms have relocated their parent company to some other country, in most cases the Netherlands itself or Cyprus. In these cases, the majority stake is no longer in Russian hands.

Often, it is the larger formerly Russian firms that have moved their parent company: 55 percent of the firms that had relocated to another country by 2024 still had 10 or more employees (in the Netherlands).

Decline in profitability

The Russian firms that remain in the Netherlands are less profitable than they were ten years ago. This is clear from figures on return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). Both indicators show a similar picture: in 2024, there were larger differences in the financial performance of the remaining Russian firms. Negative results were also more common. The wider variation is partly due to financial sanctions, the impact of which varies between sectors.