MOSCOW (Reuters) – Restaurateur Anton Pinskiy said he will become a co-owner of Starbucks Corp’s coffee shops in Russia, Forbes Russia reported on Friday.
It said he will partner up with rapper Timati and the Sindika holding company.
“Judging from the fact that we are now closing the deal, we made just the right offer,” Forbes quoted Pinskiy as saying. He did not disclose any terms, but said he had first approached Starbucks in March.
Starbucks declined to comment on the Forbes story, but referred to an earlier statement in which it said the company had made the decision to exit and no longer had a brand presence in the market.
In late May, Seattle-based Starbucks said it would exit the Russian market after nearly 15 years. Starbucks has 130 stores in Russia, operated by its licensee Alshaya Group, with nearly 2,000 employees in the country.
The Vedomosti daily reported last week, citing sources, that the deal to buy the lease rights for Starbucks’ coffee shops may be closed by late July and that all the shops would need rebranding.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
