Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis says that selling off the Russian operations of his company is taking more time than expected.
Matijošaitis is an owner of Vičiūnai Group, a major Lithuanian food production company.
Vičiūnai Group’s owners and managers have been promising to sell their business in Russia ever since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
“The process is underway today, [but it is going] not as fast as all of us, and above all myself and the other co-owner, would like,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “Some want to take it for free – it was built on loaned money, not savings – and others want [the money] to come back.”
The Kaunas mayor said he had been urged to give the factory to Russia for free and leave, but he could not do so because of his credit obligations.
Vičiūnai Group CEO Šarūnas Matijošaitis said in early April that the group would finally exit Russia within three to four months.
The group then said in late August that it had found five potential buyers for its Russian business, but added that it could not say how long the sale and transfer of the assets might take.
