The Central Finnish Co-operative Society, or S Group, is selling the company responsible for its Sokos hotel business in St. Petersburg. S Group owned three Sokos hotels in the Russian city.
The company is being bought by two Russian investors and IT entrepreneurs, Aleksandr Yermakov and Yuri Shumakov. The purchase price and other terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
S Group announced in March that it was withdrawing from the Russian market and announced it was selling off its Prisma stores in St. Petersburg earlier this month.
In addition to the three Sokos hotels, S Group owns one hotel property in St. Petersburg that is not part of the transaction and will be sold at a different point.
With the transaction, the operations of Sokos Hotels in St. Petersburg will be transferred to the buyer as of 30 June. From this date onwards, the buyer will not be entitled to use S Group trademarks in its operations.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there has been an exodus of Finnish companies from the Russian market. Valio, Fazer and Nokia are among the firms that have pulled out of Russia. As did Finnish coffee giant Paulig, although earlier this week it was revealed that a similar-looking brand will appear on Russian shelves this autumn.