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Burger King has kept its stake in its Russian franchisee through Burger King Russia Ltd., a joint venture with VTB Bank, known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “piggy bank,” leaked documents show.
Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International Inc., Burger King’s parent company, owns a 15 percent stake in the Cyprus joint venture, Burger King Russia, through a Switzerland-based unit.
The other partners in the Cyprus-registered joint venture Burger King Russia Ltd. is VTB Bank, a state-owned Russian bank, and Investment Capital Ukraine (ICU), once accused of helping Ukraine’s extravagantly corrupt former leader.
ICU owns a 35 percent stake in Burger King Russia through another Cyprus-registered firm.
Another shareholder was a Cypriot company of Russian restaurant mogul Alexander Kolobov who runs Burger King’s operations in the country.
The documents leaked to ICIJ show that all four joint venture shareholders of owned their stakes at times through shell companies in tax havens.
Burger King Russia Ltd. partly owns the Russian franchisee, Burger Rus LLC, which Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International Inc., Burger King’s parent company, has no control over.
Restaurant Brands International Inc. acknowledged the stake in response to queries by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJ) and said it is trying to sell the shares but said it can’t be done quickly.
According to Burger King, while it would like to do sell the shares immediately, it will take some time to do so based on its joint venture agreement.
Burger King rival McDonald’s and other fast-food multinationals have ceased operations in Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Burger King ceased operations in Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine and has instead suspended “corporate support” for the restaurants while redirecting profits from its 800 Russian outlets to relief efforts for Ukraine.
In an emailed response to ICIJ, Restaurant Brands said it had asked the master franchisee to suspend the Russian business with immediate effect, but the latter refused. The company added that due to the franchise structure and current agreements, it cannot force the master franchisee to close.
