In an official release, the largest sandwich panel manufacturer in the world, Kingspan, announced its decision to transfer its assets in Russia to Russian management. The company took this step due to pressure from its employees and customers around the world, showing that it allegedly stops financing Russia's war in Ukraine by paying taxes to the aggressor's budget. In fact Kingspan still remains the ultimate beneficiary of the Russian business, having only formally changed its owner to the British company F109 Limited, which was created just 3 weeks before the official announcement of the withdrawal from Russia and is wholly owned by the Irish Kingspan Holdings Limited.

Today both Kingspan plants, as well as the company's head office and branches, continue to be active in the Russian Federation.

According to the analytical portal MadeSimple, owner of F109 Limited company, which manages Kingspan's assets in the Russian Federation, is the Irish Kingspan Holdings Limited, and the director of the new company is Russian Igor Fedotchenko, who also holds the position of General Director of Kingspan LLC.

Today on the official Kingspan website the company page of the Russian division is still functioning, offering products and cooperation, and there are also contacts with corporate e-mail addresses. This confirms that Kingspan continues to provide information and technical support to its divisions in the Russian Federation. Moreover, according to Russian media, “currently the Russian company management is considering the possibility to install another production line for mineral wool sandwich panels”, at the plant in Nevinnomyssk, which shows Kingspan's plans to invest in Russian business development.

According to the analytical portal SPARK-Profile, on April 21, 2022, during the fierce battles for Mariupol and the bombing of dozens of other cities in Ukraine, Kingspan LLC filed five patent applications for the new Ruspan trademark. Obviously the top management of the Irish holding is thus trying to hide its business in Russia even more and at the same time leave the consonant brand names Kingspan – Ruspan.

To promote Kingspan products on the Russian market, the company created a website on the www.ruspan.su domain, which is administrated by a specialist with the Kingspan corporate e-mail address. The design of the new site almost completely repeats the corporate website www.kingspan.com and is filled with information materials with the Kingspan logo and portfolio, which once again proves the information and technical support of the parent company for its Russian business.

Obviously, after receiving income from activities in Russia, the British company F109 Limited, which has only four employees, will pay dividends to its owner, the Irish Kingspan Holdings Limited. It is worth recalling that in 2021 the income of Kingspan LLC and Kingspan Nevinnomyssk LLC totaled 3.36 billion rubles (~$45.6 million).

Thus, Kingspan holding continues to be active in the Russian Federation with the full support of the parent company. The Irish holding not only did not stop its activities and investments in the country that unleashed the bloodiest war in Europe over the past 80 years, but also, through cynical manipulations, misleads its employees and customers around the world and continues to make profit, filling the Russian budget.

Updated information

When the information that Kingspan did not leave Russia became public on June 14, 2022, the Irish company most likely made steps possible. On June 23, 2022, the British Companies House received information that Kingspan Holdings Limited transferred 100% of the shares of F109 Limited to Igor Fedotchenko noticed on April 4. But the inconsistency is that in the case of significant owners, the company is obliged to report this within 14 days, and 80 days have passed from April 4 to the expiration date. Apparently, after Kingspan discovered that their scheme remained in Russia, the company decided to create an internal retroactive share transfer agreement, but it was not possible to register this retroactively, so, in violation of the law, this was done with a delay of almost 3 months. Until June 23, according to all discovered bases, Kingspan Holdings Limited appeared as a 100% owner of F109 Limited shares. So the disclosure of information did its job and the company really left the Russian market.