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Yuksel Karkin Kucuk and Gide Loyrette Nouel have won the Bonds & Loans Awards Project Finance Deal of the Year and Turkey Structured Finance Deal of the Year awards, respectively.

Yuksel Karkin Kucuk, the Turkish firm closely affiliated with DLA Piper until the two announced their “demerger” last week, has announced that the STAR (Socar Turcas Aegean Refinery) Project, on which the firm advised, was named Project Finance Deal of the Year by Bonds & Loans Awards, which the firm calls, “one of the most prestigious awards in the sector.” The STAR Project won two other awards as well: the Weber Shandwick Trade and Export Deal of the Year and Syndicated Loan Deal of the Year.  

SOCAR — the Azeri state oil company — secured financing for the USD 5.5 billion Turkish oil refinery it is building with Turcas Petrol in March, 2014. Sources at the time reported that the source of funding was provided by Turkey’s Denizbank, owned by Russia’s Sberbank. The Star plant in Aliaga on the Aegean coast is expected to have an annual capacity of 10 million tons. It will also produce diesel, jet fuel, and LPG. SOCAR owns 81.5 percent of the Aegean refinery project, with Turcas owning the remaining 18.5 percent.  

YukselKark?nKucuk provided legal advice to SOCAR on the project, which the firm describes as “the largest real sector financing in Turkey … targeted to achieve construction and operation of the second and the most productive oil refinery in Turkey tackling the significant supply gap in the domestic market.”  

Similarly, Gide Loyrette Nouel has announced that the European Export Credit Agency it arranged for Turkish Airlines has won the Bonds and Loans Awards Turkey Structured Finance Deal of the Year Award. 

According to a Gide press release, “this innovative deal successfully combined a Japanese Operating Lease with Call Option (JOLCO) with a European Credit Agencies’ (EECA) guaranteed bank debt (ECA JOLCO) structure. This structure affords tax advantages to the Japanese equity investors and offers credit enhancement to the lenders.” The firm elaborated that, “the arrangement of the cash flow structure in Japanese Yen allows the airline to naturally hedge its currency risk by matching its excess JPY revenues. The combination of the ECA guarantee, equity investment and JPY-denomination provides Turkish Airlines with a low cost of borrowing. The bulk of the payments are made towards the end of the tenor in a JOLCO structure providing Turkish Airlines with a liquidity advantage. This structure also provides a call option on the purchase of the aircraft on the 10th year. Not all airlines are eligible to enter the JOLCO market and this was a 100% LTV financing unlike most of the alternatives in the current aircraft financing market.”  

BNP Paribas acted as lead arranger and lender and Development Bank of Japan as a lender.

Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic has advised the Croatian state-owned provider of postal services, Croatian Post, on its EUR 52 million bond issuance on October 10, 2014. The Croatian Post has close to 10 thousand employees and conducts over 500 million transactions and services annually.

According to a Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic statement, the firm “undertook a thorough due diligence procedure, prepared both an information memorandum and prospectus for listing of bonds on the stock exchange, and supported the actual stock exchange listing.” The deal also, the firm reports, “included sophisticated refinancing of existing bonds.”

The DTB team was led by Partner Damir Topic, and coordinated by Senior Associate Martina Kalamiza. 

Hedman Partners has added Dmitri Tsimpoaka to the firm’s partnership, joining Kalle Pedak, Merlin Salvik, and Esa Halmari.

Tsimpoaka’s primary fields of expertise are commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, labor law, insolvency matters, and dispute resolution. He graduated from Tartu University’s Faculty of Law with a Master’s degree in 2010, and he has also studied commercial law at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Prior to joining Hedman Partners, Tsimpoaka four years ago, he served as a lawyer at the Juhkentali law office. He became a member of the Estonian Bar Association in 2012.

Hedman Partners’ Managing Partner Merlin Salvik said that Tsimpoaka established himself as a “very valuable commercial and employment law expert during the four years he has worked at the law firm, particularly excelling as an advisor to international M&A transactions and complicated labor disputes.” She explained that “inviting Dmitri to join the circle of partners is a clear statement of our trust and our commitment to share with him the joys and responsibilities of the law firm.”

Konnov & Sozanovsky has successfully defended the interests of Soremartec, a member of the Ferrero Group, in the company’s challenge to the Certificate for the “Rafael; my cuisine” (in Russian) trademark as invalid.

The company claimed that the reference to “Rafael” was confusingly similar to the Ferrero Group’s world-wide and well-established “Raffaello” trademarks. 

Konnov & Sozanovsky reports that, as a result of the Soremartec challenge, the defendant abandoned its Certificate for the Trademark. The firm’s team on the matter included Partner Alexey Pokotylo and Assistant Attorney Mariana Polishchuk.

Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. has reported two major deals in recent months, both led by Partner Zoya Todorova.

In September of this year, Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. advised Advance Properties — a Bulgarian investment company —  in connection with its acquisition of the Huvepharma pharmaceutical company from the Rohatyn Group private equity investor. DPC advised Advance Properties in connection with securing a syndicated loan of EUR 275 million, which the firm says will be used for “financing the purchase of the 36.6% of the shares of the US investor.” According to Dimitrov, Petrov & Co., “this [was] one of the biggest corporate loans drawn by a Bulgarian company so far.”

In October, a Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. team also led by Todorova successfully advised the NEVEQ II venture capital fund in relation to its participation in a USD 2 million investment in a leading online real estate mobile platform in Latin ?merica. The investment provided by the NEVEQ II and NXTP investment funds will help the unnamed recipient, “continue the growth of its activities in the region, especially in the development of mobile platforms area.”

Since 2011, Lidings has represented the interests of Demesne Investments Limited in Russia, the special-purpose treasury company used by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation as a vehicle for the implementation of Sean Quinn’s many financial projects in Russia.

According to the firm, in 2006-2007, when Quinn first started investing in Russia, he was Ireland’s richest man. The firm reports that Quinn “came to Russia to lay the cornerstones at the construction sites of massive commercial real estate properties in a number of Russian regions.” Lidings claims that “Sean Quinn sat at the helm of a financial-industrial group encompassing mining enterprises, chemical concerns, insurance companies and real estate holdings worth some USD 6 billion. Yet, despite this enormous wealth, the empire found itself teetering on the edge of collapse as a result of risky moves played with over-extended, high-debt-load financial instruments at the height of the global crisis.”

According to the firm, among the properties once owned by Quinn that were carved out from the ownership structure to prevent the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation from recovering the money it had disbursed to Quinn are the Kutuzoff Tower (46,000 m²) and the Caspian (17,000 m²) business centers in Moscow, the Q-Park logistics park (200,000 m²) in Kazan, the Aurora shopping center (70,000 m²) in Ufa, and the StroyArsenal hypermarkets in Ekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Naberezhnye Chelny.

Lidings lawyers have worked with attorneys in Dublin, Belfast, London, Road Town (BVI), and Panama on obtaining expert opinions and witness statements for the Russian courts, going on to pursue information disclosure and take part in the deposition of key witnesses within the framework of foreign legal proceedings. 

The firm claims that its lawyers have handled more than 600 lawsuits on the matter in the last three years, “resulting in the wresting of control over the respective bankruptcy proceedings and the return of the concerned assets to the client’s corporate control.”

Gessel has acted as counsel to mBank on the preparation of a financing package for Oxylion, a leader in the new technologies sector.

Oxylion plans on applying the financing towards several acquisitions of other companies in its industry.

Gessel’s services included drafting and negotiation of the credit and securities documentation. The firm’s work was coordinated by Managing Associate Malgorzata Badowska, supported by Trainee Barbara Lagiewka.

At the beginning of the year, Gessel advised the same bank on debt financing to purchase shares of Stone Master (reported on by CEE Legal Matters on January 8, 2014)

Raidla Lejins & Norcous has advised the Lithuanian Cgates telecommunications company on its acquisition of 100% shares in RAKARAS, Ukmerges televizija, and UKMNET TV.

Cgates also took over part of SATELA’s cable internet access and cable TV retail business. The value of the acquisitions was not disclosed.

Raidla Lejins & Norcous drafted transaction documents, represented Cgates during negotiations, and advised on other transaction related matters. The team was led by Managing Associate Juozas Rimas, the Head of RLN’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group.

AstapovLawyers reports that Aleksey Kovryzhenko has joined the firm as Counsel and Head of Distressed Assets Practice in the CIS region.

According to the firm, “in his new role, Aleksey will be developing a new practice in the firm, focusing on distressed opportunities, recovering debt for financial institutions (commercial banks, insurance, leasing, factoring and other companies), as well as working with toxic assets in Crimea.”

Kovryzhenko has over 15 years of experience in the banking sphere. Prior to joining AstapovLawyers, he headed the Distressed Assets Department at state-owned Oschadbank for 4 years. His professional experience also includes positions in a number of mid-size and large commercial banks of Ukraine. He graduated from Faculty of Law of the International Solomon University, and gained a degree in economics at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

AstapovLawyers Managing Partner Andrey Astapov said: “Developing a successful practice requires hands-on banking experience in addition to the legal knowledge. I strongly believe that due to deep experience in state and commercial banks, Aleksey will be a valuable addition to our team. Today, we are the only one firm with a special focused practice handling legal issues in distressed assets, including number of matters arising from change of the legal status of Crimea.” 

And Kovryzhenko said: “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to develop practice and my professional plans along with the leading team of AstapovLawyers. Dealing with distressed assets is gaining momentum due to general negative economic conditions, distrust of banking system in general, and deposit outflow, deterioration of performance (liquidity, insolvency, national currency devaluation); increase of non-performing loans in bank portfolio. In such difficult times, legal support for management and dealing with distressed assets, as well as protection of the rights and interests of Ukrainian creditors and foreign investors have become a topical issue. It demands systemic and innovative decisions, new approaches for protection in terms of Ukrainian jurisdiction and beyond.”