Shipping giant Maersk lost $717 million in the first quarter of 2022, as the company exited Russia following the Ukrainian invasion, according to a Bloomberg report.
According to the report, $627 million of the Russian losses were write-downs and $91 million were increases in operating costs.
The company which controls about one-sixth of the world’s container trade had stopped ties with Russia, and its last cargo operation in Russian ports ended on May 2.
Maersk’s Russian assets now stand at zero, confirmed CEO Soren Skou said, in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Anna Edwards.
“We decided to write it all down during the quarter. Hopefully we will regain some of that as we divest the assets in the coming quarters,” said Skou.
The CEO also added that Maersk is currently in negotiations with several parties regarding the sale of port stakes in Russia.
“It is a complicated situation, there are also sanctions and so on that, we have to abide by. It will take a while, I suspect, for those talks,” revealed Skou.