HELSINKI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Finnish paint maker

Tikkurila and its U.S.-based parent PPG Industries ( PPG ),

completed their exit from Russia at the end of January, PPG said

on Wednesday, joining scores of Western companies to have left

the country since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Many Western companies have sold their Russian assets or

handed them over to local managers to comply with Western

sanctions and respond to threats from the Kremlin that it may

seize foreign-owned assets.

"Tikkurila Oyj completed its exit from Russia at the end of

January," PPG's senior manager Andrew Wood said in an emailed

statement to Reuters, declining to share any details about the

transaction.

Russian corporate filings showed that Russian company Smart

Business Group, registered in September 2024, had become the

100% owner of Russian company Tikkurila LLC on February 5.

In an earnings release on January 30, the paints and

coatings maker PPG said its portfolio optimisation included "an

impairment charge of $146 million (140.7 million euros)

recognised during the fourth quarter 2024 when the company's

remaining operations in Russia were classified as held for

sale".

Finland's Tikkurila and its Russian unit were acquired by

PPG in 2021, but PPG decided to exit Russia in June 2022

after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in

February 2022.

"PPG's exit from Russia is completed. Its industrial

coatings operations were divested in 2023," Wood said on

Wednesday.

In 2022, the company had already recorded impairment and

other related charges worth $290 million due to the wind down of

the company's operations in Russia.

In September, Tikkurila's former Russian unit said the

Tikkurila products manufactured at plants in Russia would be

sold under a new brand, Tikkivala, from the first quarter of

2025.

At the time, PPG said sanctions prevented it from making any

decisions regarding subsidiary operations in Russia and that its

divestment of Tikkurila's Russian unit was pending approval by

the Russian authorities.

(1 euro = $1.0374)