By Noémie Bisserbe, Clemens Bomsdorf and Peter Evans 

A swath of European businesses, from banks to brewers, are taking big hits to their bottom lines caused by the political uncertainty surrounding Moscow's standoff with the West over Ukraine and the dwindling Russian economy.

French bank Société Générale SA said Wednesday that a EUR525 million ($731.26 million) write-down on its Russian business pushed first-quarter net profit down 13%, while Carlsberg A/S and Imperial Tobacco Group PLC both said that falling sales in Russia and a weak ruble had cut profit and would weigh on revenue for the remainder of the year. Brewers and cigarette makers have been hurt in recent quarters by tighter regulation on beer and tobacco sales, long before Russia annexed Crimea.

But the political standoff with the West since the crisis has put further pressure on the ruble and pushed the Russian economy toward recession. Yet more evidence of the decline came on Wednesday, as the HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index, which tracks output of Russia's service providers and manufacturers, contracted in April at its swiftest pace since May 2009.

The worsening Russian economy has clouded revenue and earnings forecasts for many big European companies, which have recently relied on the country as an engine of growth.

Société Générale, France's third-largest listed bank by assets, said first-quarter net profit dropped to EUR315 million from EUR364 million a year earlier. The bank cited growing political uncertainty, the sluggish economy and weakness of the ruble for the fall.

Growing tensions between the West and Moscow have been a major blow to Société Générale, which owns one of Russia's largest private lenders, Rosbank. Since 2006, Société Générale has spent more than EUR4 billion building up a 99.4% stake in Rosbank, but the French bank's efforts have been slow to pay off. Setbacks have included last year's arrest of Rosbank Chief Executive Vladimir Golubkov, who was charged with bribery by Russian authorities.

In the first quarter, Société Générale's operating income in Russia fell to EUR7 million from EUR61 million a year earlier.

The big Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S cited the weak ruble and uncertainty in Russia as reasons it swung to an adjusted net loss during the first quarter and forecast a bleaker outlook for the remainder of 2014.

The world's No. 4 brewer has built up a significant exposure to Russia--its largest single market, generating about a third of revenue--amid a wider bet it placed last decade on Eastern Europe. The company reported a 14% net-revenue decline in Eastern Europe in the first quarter compared with the same period year ago, and the company's overall operating profit fell by about a third.

On Wednesday, the company downgraded its full-year outlook for net performance to reflect Russia's fragile economic situation, saying it now expects net profit to grow by a low-single-digit percentage in 2014, instead of the mid-single-digit percentage it previously expected. The ruble's weakness against the euro, along with currency headwinds in some other markets, is a key reason behind the downgrade.

Carlsberg CEO Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen said Wednesday that the company now assumes Russian gross domestic product will be flat for the year on average, "where going into the year we assumed a GDP growth of 1% or 1.5%."

Even before the current crisis in Ukraine, brewers were struggling because of regulatory changes and other factors that pulled the overall Russian beer market down. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world's biggest brewer, said Wednesday that volume in Russia fell 10% in the most recent quarter, compared with a 4.5% increase for the group as a whole. Last month, Dutch brewer Heineken NV reported a 37% decline in first-quarter net profit, citing "challenging beer-market conditions in Russia," among other factors.

U.K.-based cigarette giant Imperial Tobacco said Wednesday that Russia--usually one of its fastest-growing markets, where around 40% of the population are smokers-- had dragged down first-half earnings. In the past year, the Russian government has banned smoking in many public places, prohibited cigarette sales from street kiosks and raised excise on tobacco products by up to 40%.

"Things are progressing very rapidly in Russia," said Alison Cooper, Imperial's chief executive. Imperial's cigarette volume in Russia declined 7% in the six months ended March 31, and Ms. Cooper said she expects volume to be down around 10% over the full year.

Unilever PLC, the world's second-largest consumer-goods maker, is also among the corporate players blaming the ruble's weakness for recent struggles. The company recently passed EUR1 billion in sales in Russia, having entered the country in 1992, but has seen many of its gains in the past year wiped out by the ruble's slide. Sales in Unilever's most recent quarter fell 6.3%.

Oriflame Cosmetics SA of Sweden said Wednesday that local-currency sales in Russia dropped by 8%. "With sharply devaluating currencies and challenges of exceptional nature in our two largest markets, Russia and Ukraine, there is no doubt the company is facing very tough conditions," Oriflame said. "The exceptional situation in Ukraine had a substantial negative impact on consumer sentiment which clearly affected sales during the quarter."

Different Russian factors dragged on French consumer-goods company Danone SA in the first three months of the year. Danone said sales volumes fell in Russia--the company's largest market by sales--as the firm had to raise prices for its dairy products to compensate for sharp increases in milk prices.

Milk prices have jumped 30% in Russia recently, Danone Chief Financial Officer Pierre-André Terisse said on a conference call last month, leading Danone to increase its prices by 15% in the past year. The two latest price increases came into effect in February and March. Danone said its entry-level products have taken the biggest hit, with sales volume down more than 10% in the first quarter. Mr. Terisse added that he expects sales volume to continue to decline for "the coming few quarters."

In Ukraine's neighbor Hungary, leading pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter Nyrt. expects a drop in Ukrainian and Russian sales this year as a result of the continuing political crises, its chief executive said Wednesday.

CEO Erik Bogsch said the company's sales in Ukraine likely will drop by 35% in U.S.-dollar terms, versus revenue of $95 million last year.

"The local currency has devalued and prices have shot up; sales have dropped already," Mr. Bogsch said at a news conference. "Wholesalers don't dare to keep large inventories, and all actors are very careful."

Veronica Gulyas in Budapest,

Jens Hansegard

in Stockholm, and

Ruth Bender

and Christina Passariello in Paris contributed to this article.

Write to Noémie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com, Clemens Bomsdorf at clemens.bomsdorf@wsj.com and Peter Evans at peter.evans@wsj.com

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