By Anne Kauranen and Alexander Marrow

HELSINKI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Finnish paint maker Tikkurila and its U.S.-based parent PPG Industries PPG.N, 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 PPG.N 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)

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki and Alexander Marrow in London;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

((anne.kauranen@thomsonreuters.com; +358401895560;))