The owner of the former Danone assets became the former deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Chechnya.

H&N’s press service confirmed the change of ownership to the publication, but refused to reveal the reasons and details of the transaction. Alisultanov has been working at H&N since the summer of 2023 and holds the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Before moving to this position, Alisultanov voluntarily resigned from the Ministry of Agriculture of Chechnya.

“As for H&N’s business, we can confirm that it is developing confidently and increasing volumes, revenues and investments. The company has great development plans, expansion of the range and production volumes,” emphasized the company representative, ensuring that the change of owners will not affect the business.

Previously, the owner of Unimilk LLC (now Vamin-Tatarstan), which controls Vamin R LLC, was Mintimer Mingazov, the son of the former owner of the Vamin dairy company, Vagiz Mingazov. According to the Rusprofile database, at the end of 2023, Health and Nutrition turnover amounted to 117 billion rubles, writes Kommersant.

Danone closed the deal to sell Russian assets in May this year. In October 2022, the liquidation process of the French company’s presence in Russia began, during which Danone suffered losses worth €1.2 billion.

In March 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled by decree the transfer of assets of Danone Russia JSC and Danone Trade JSC to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency, which took place in April last year. Then the company was headed by Chechen Deputy Prime Minister and nephew of Ramzan Kadyrov, Yakub Zakriev. According to the Financial Times, the transaction amount for the sale of the Russian business amounted to 17.7 billion rubles or $191.5 million at the exchange rate of February 2024. In September 2023, the former Russian structure from Danone, H&N, was renamed Health and Nutrition.