5 Companies That Stand To Lose Due To Operations In Russia, Ukraine

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has led to many companies offering support to Ukraine while pulling operations from Russia.

For many companies, the operations in the two countries represent a small portion of revenue and could have minimal impact on operations as the conflict continues.  

Here’s a look at five companies that could see a bigger negative impact from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

Payoneer: Fintech company Payoneer Global Inc PAYO recently reported fourth-quarter fiscal earnings and updated its guidance due to the invasion of Ukraine. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $139.2 million, up 47% year-over-year.

Payoneer reported full-year fiscal 2021 revenue of $473.4 million, up 37% year-over-year.

“We are excited about the growth potential for our platform and the positive returns we are generating from our growth potential for our investments as we continue to expand our broad range of services which enable businesses around the world to be successful across all digital sales channels,” Payoneer CEO Scott Galit said.

The company’s guidance included an update on its business in Ukraine and Russia.

“Our guidance also reflects the potential impact from the conflict in Ukraine,” Payoneer CFO Michael Levine said. “While the situation remains fluid, we have constructed our guidance to assume zero contribution from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus for the rest of the year.”

Updated guidance for fiscal 2022 calls for revenue of $530 million to $540 million. The company said excluding the impact of the three countries, guidance would be in a range of $576 million to $586 million.

“Russia and Belarus combined represent approximately 3% of our revenue, and together with Ukraine were slightly less than 10% of revenue in 2021.”

The impact of the countries being excluded in guidance also led to the company projecting negative adjusted EBITDA. 

Needham cut its price target on Payoneer from $13 to $7, with the “negative impact” from the company’s exposure to the three mentioned countries being among the reasons.

Fiverr: Freelance company Fiverr International FVRR is one of many that count residents of Ukraine among its worker pool.

“Fiverr has employees in offices around the world, but one of our most beloved and vibrant teams worked in an office in Kyiv,” the company said.

Fiverr worked with its team members in Ukraine to provide evacuation and relocation. The company also offered early payouts to employees.

Ukraine is one of the largest supplier of contract labor by freelancers, according to a report from Wired. Residents of the country act as copywriters, editors, project managers, IT technicians, graphic designers, software engineers and other jobs for clients worldwide.

A 2018 survey showed over 500,000 Ukrainians registered to freelance work sites, or around 3% of the country’s workforce.

Another report found that Ukraine’s freelancers are the seventh-largest supplier of online labor worldwide.

With less workers available to offer services worldwide, Fiverr and other freelance job platforms could see revenue fall and the potential loss of clients and recurring revenue.

Upwork: Upwork Inc UPWK is among the many companies suspending operations across Russia and Belarus. The company said its customers in the country will no longer be able to sign up for new accounts or initiate new contracts. Existing contracts will remain open, with a final billing date of May 1, 2022.

In Ukraine, freelance workers with Upwork are facing challenges to complete tasks and communicate with clients. This means potential loss of revenue for the Upwork freelancers and the company overall.

Related Link: The Companies Pulling Their Businesses From Russia After The Ukraine Invasion

WeWork: Shared workspace company WeWork Inc WE was one of the last U.S. companies to announce it was pulling out of Russia. The decision to move out of Russia also comes after the CEO issued some comments that went viral.

On Monday, WeWork said it would divest its Russian operations. 

“Together with our colleagues, members and landlords, we have been finalizing solutions to divest operations in Russia and we’ve suspended all expansion plans for the business in the region,” the company said in a statement. 

In a recent Bloomberg interview, WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani's comments rang unsympathetic to many.

“Our assets do incredibly well,” Mathrani said of the company’s four Russian offices. “We hope for a resolution of the conflict and hopefully we can continue to do business in Moscow.”

The four office buildings were 90% occupied and do around $10 million in revenue, Mathrani said. 

While the $10 million in revenue and four buildings make up a small portion of the billions of dollars in revenue and 700 locations operated globally, it represented a rare case of a CEO’s comments being used to justify remaining in Russia.

Discovery Inc: Media conglomerate Discovery Inc DISCA owns several properties in the U.S. but is also one of the largest media players in Europe.

Discovery announced Wednesday that it has suspended all operations in Russia, which includes around 15 channels operated under a joint venture with Russia’s National Media Group.

“Discovery has decided to suspend the broadcast of its channels and services in Russia,” Discovery told Variety.

Discovery also owns Poland’s largest news channel TVN24, which has been covering the Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

Media Alliance is the Russian distributor of Discovery channels in the country. Discovery is reportedly looking at the terms of its joint venture to see if it can make a complete exit.

Discovery could potentially lose out on the deal by being forced to remain in the joint venture or coming up empty handed and not receiving any money for its relationship in Russia.

See Also: Which 10 Major US Companies Are Still Doing Business In Russia