Relocations Of EU Listed Companies To Russia Reach Exodus Proportions

The Cypriot-based Burger King Russia is the latest EU listed company to have redomiciled its business from the European Union to Russia, where it will continue to operate as BKR ICLLC.

According to the Russian Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Burger King Russia was re-registered on September 1 in Kaliningrad’s special administrative region. The company’s CEO is Sergei Kozlov, who heads Burger Rus LLC, the master franchisee of Burger King in Russia. The international chain did not have its own restaurants in Russia but franchised them. The ICL owns 99.84% of the capital of Burger King Rus.

The 2024 revenue of the Russian Burger King company, according to the Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) had reached ₽90.26 billion (€936 million) in 2024, up 21.2%. Gross profit grew 14.3% to ₽17.29 billion (€179.3 million).

Those revenues would have normally been reported and subsequently taxable (upon repatriation) in Cyprus, which has a corporate income tax rate of 12.5%. This means that Cyprus has lost 2024 taxable income of about €22.41 million, taxable revenues that will now flow to Russia. In addition to this loss, professional services jobs will also have been lost in the legal, tax and accounting areas that would have previously been responsible in Cyprus for maintaining the companies accounts.

The re-domiciliation of EU-based companies to Russia has been going on since 2023 and is increasing, although this is typically unreported in European media. Other examples can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.