Finnish elevator maker Kone sells Russian assets to S8 Capital

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finnish elevator maker Kone said on Tuesday it had completed the sale of its Russian operations to S8 Capital, a Russian holding company that has acquired assets from several departing Western firms.

Scores of companies have exited Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, but Russia has steadily tightened exit requirements, demanding government approval, a 50% discount on any sale and a contribution to the federal budget of at least 10% of the sale price, dubbed an "exit tax" by Washington.

S8 Capital has acquired assets previously owned by elevator maker Otis Worldwide Corp, German technology group Bosch and Continental.

"The transaction has been approved by the relevant authorities and the closing of the deal means that Kone is now fully divested from Russia," Kone said in a statement. "The value of the transaction is not disclosed."

"At the time of closing the deal, Kone employed around 300 people in Russia and the business accounted for less than 1% of Kone's global sales," Kone said.

S8 Capital said the deal included the company's service portfolio covering 7,000 equipment units in six Russian regions.

It said more than 300 Kone employees in Russia would keep their jobs and move to Meteor Lift, the company it has rebranded Otis' former Russian business as.

S8 Capital managing director Thorsten Schubert said the Kone deal had made Meteor Lift Russia's leading high-speed lift provider and that the priority was to now establish supply chains with friendly countries, those that have not imposed sanctions against Russia.

Kone said in March 2022 that it would cease deliveries and not sign new orders. Three months later, it announced plans to divest its business and operations.

(Reporting by Reuters; additional reporting by Filipp Lebedev; writing by Alexander Marrow; editing by Jason Neely, David Evans, Kirsten Donovan)