Columbus corporation sells Russian business to wealthy Putin ally. Here’s what we know
Global Payments, a Fortune 500 financial technology company with dual headquarters in Atlanta and Columbus, has sold its business in Russia.
The buyer: an investment group led by Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s richest businessman and a close ally of Vladimir Putin.
Potanin’s investment group Interros announced Monday that it purchased United Card Services, part of Global Payments Inc, according to Reuters. The Georgia company confirmed the sale in filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission but did not name the buyer.
United Card Services was one of Russia’s largest independent payment technology solutions providers.
The sale was completed April 29, and the value of the deal was not disclosed. When contacted by the Ledger-Enquirer, a spokesperson for Global Payments declined to answer questions.
“As a result of additional sanctions imposed in April 2022 that will affect our ability to continue normal operations in Russia, we sold our merchant business in Russia effective April 29, 2022,” Global Payments said in its report. “Based on our current estimates, we expect to recognize a charge of approximately $130 million during the second quarter of 2022 associated with the sale, including recognition of the associated accumulated foreign currency translation losses.”
Who is Vladimir Potanin?
Potanin, 61, is the majority shareholder and the CEO of Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and refined nickel, online news outlet Insider reported last month.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Potanin’s net worth at more than $32 billion.
He was one of 37 business leaders who met with Putin at the Kremlin on Feb. 24, the day of the invasion of Ukraine, the Washington Post reported.
Despite being known for vacationing and playing ice hockey with the Russian leader, Potanin is one of the county’s few notable oligarchs who has escaped sanctions from the European Union and the United States.
Potanin first began meeting with Putin in 2000, and the Russian businessman was included in a 2018 list released by the U.S. government of 210 Russian politicians and oligarchs who benefited from their close ties with the Kremlin.
The Global Payments deal was Potanin’s latest move to purchase financial assets as companies exit Russia.
Interros bought a 35% stake in TCS Group Holding from founder and businessman Oleg Tinkov last week. Tinkov told the New York Times that the Kremlin forced the sale after he criticized the war in Ukraine. French bank Societe Generale sold its Russian Rosbank unit to Interros last month.
Potanin warned the Kremlin in March that confiscating the assets of companies that fled the country in the wake of the war would create “a global lack of confidence in Russia from investors.”
Global Payments merged with Columbus-owned TSYS in 2019.
This story was originally published May 5, 2022 at 9:30 AM.