Nestlé Books Higher Third-quarter Sales, Deconsolidates Russian Business

05:48 AM EDT, 10/22/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Nestlé (NESN.SW) reported better-than-expected sales in the third quarter and said it deconsolidated its Russian business following the placement of the operations under external administration. The Swiss consumer goods giant delivered total group sales of 22.76 billion francs for the three months ended Sept. 30, higher than the year-ago 21.64 billion francs and the FactSet-compiled consensus estimate of 22.45 billion francs. Real internal growth, which was positive across all of the company's zones and globally managed businesses, rose 2.8% over the period, according to a Thursday release. Nestlé primarily attributed the increase in sales to its pet care and food & snacks product categories, which both saw mid-single-digit organic growth, bolstered by a robust confectionery performance in the Americas region and improving trends in US frozen food. By geography, developed markets saw 2.2% organic growth on the back of improving momentum, while emerging markets logged a particularly "strong" performance during the quarter, with organic growth of 6.8%. With regard to its operations in Russia, Nestlé said it remains the legal owner of the assets but no longer has control over the management of its business. Consequently, it deconsolidated the business, effective from the end of September, and derecognized net assets worth 1.6 billion francs. "In addition, the Group has recognized a charge of approximately CHF 1.4 billion in respect of cumulative currency translation adjustments, which is non-cash and will have no impact on the Group's total equity. In total, the deconsolidation adversely impacts Group net debt by approximately CHF 0.9 billion for year-end 2026," the company said, noting that the deconsolidation had no impact on its third-quarter or nine-month results. As of late Thursday morning, Nestlé shares were trading 1% higher in Zurich.