Aleinikov & Partners has advised AIMatter on a wide range of issues, including in intellectual property, corporate, and commercial law.
Incorporated in 2006, AIMatter conducts research and development in the field of artificial intelligence. Its mobile app, Fabby, is a photo editing program based on neural networks deployed solely on a smartphone without use of a remote servers.
Belarus’s Revera has advised the US-based OWHealth startup on the USD 1 million investment the company received from the Haxus venture capital fund and Flint Capital.
Revera conducted vendor due diligence, oversaw the IP transfer, and “provided corporate support for the investment process on the founders’ behalf.”
OWHealth developed The Flo app — a calculator that tracks and predicts menstrual cycles, ovulation, and fertile days. Flo, which was developed in Belarus and launched in October 2015, is available in 19 languages on iOS and Android. It was created in Minsk by Dmitry Hurskiy, Max Skrobov, and Andrew Kovzel.
The Haxus Venture Fund was co-founded at the end of October 2016 by Yuri Gurski, who previously invested in MSQRD, which was sold to Facebook in 2016.
The Revera team was led by Head of the Corporate practice Helen Mourashko and Head of IT practice Uliana Karpekina.
Aleinikov & Partners is advising MTBank on its entry into an agreement with Nordic Environment Finance Corporation aimed at cooperative financing of energy efficient projects.
The MTBank Energy Efficiency facility will provide funding to small and medium-sized businesses and private households in Belarus, for the renewal of equipment in production facilities and energy efficiency in the forestry sector and renovation of households, among other things. The projects are designed to reduce emissions and to provide energy savings.
“This agreement is not only aimed at providing small and medium-sized businesses with the necessary financial funds, but it also allows us to use the latest achievements of green technology in the area of energy efficiency,” said Valery Smaliak, Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board at MTBank.
MTBank was founded in 1994 and has its headquarters in Minsk, with 151 branch offices and some 1450 employees across Belarus, as well as almost 15,000 corporate customers and 405,000 retail clients.
Aleinikov & Partners is advising the Falcon Investment Fund of Qatar Armed Forces on a range of issues related to the construction of a multi-purpose hotel and sports complex in Minsk worth approximately USD 200 million.
The project, which is being implemented on the basis of an investment agreement signed between the Falcon Investment Fund and the State of Belarus, as reflected in the country’s Presidential Edict No. 345 of August 9, 2011, covers the construction of a multi-purpose complex in Minsk, including a five-star Marriott hotel, a sports center able to host competitions in various sports such as handball, basketball, wrestling, volleyball, and tennis as well as large-scale cultural events, shops and cafes, two swimming pools, a spa center, a tennis club, a squash playground, and a multi-level parking lot with 300 places.
Most of the facilities opened in December 2015, with the cinema still pending.
The Aleinikov & Partners team included Partner Dmitry Matveyev and Senior Associate Ksana Sidoruk.
The Belarusian office of Arzinger & Partners has represented Uber B.V. in negotiating and concluding an Agreement on Interaction and Cooperation with the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the Republic of Belarus, signed on November 15, 2016.
Uber is an international technological company developing mobile services for search of cars with a driver. The company provides its services in more than 500 cities and 80 countries of the world. In Belarus – in Minsk – Uber started its work on November 5, 2015.
According to Arzinger & Partners, “implementation of the provisions contained in the document will help to create a healthy competitive environment and transparent market conditions in the market of city transport services, including the services rendered with the application of the information technologies.”
“We highly appreciate execution of this agreement,” commented Alexey Stakh, the General Manager of Uber in the CIS. “In our opinion, cooperation within this agreement will add even more transparency for the state body. That, in turn, will help this body to collect the predicted amount of taxes in the transport industry. Transparency and openness from all players of the transport services market will help to improve the quality of transportations and will allow making the capital of Belarus even more comfortable for working and living.”
The Arzinger & Partners team was led by Managing Partner Sergey Mashonsky, working with Deputy Director Klim Stashevsky.
The recession in the Belarusian economy that started in 2015 continues, says Ekaterina Zabello, Partner at Vlasova Mikhel & Partners in Belarus, who notes that she doesn’t expect it to recover significantly until 2017 or 2018 at the soonest.
The factors, she says, are well known: 1. The country’s close economic ties to Russia, its primary trading partner, which is itself in the midst of a serious economic crisis; 2. An economy dominated by state-run industries and companies; and 3. Decreasing exports. None of those shows any signs of abating anytime soon.
Zabello says the government has made various attempts to address these problems without much success, including the preparation of various action papers and plans and the efforts were aimed at the technological modernization of certain industrial sectors to increase the competitiveness of Belarusian products and thereby the amount of exports. “But the products are still not so popular on external markets, and the consumption of the Russian market, which is essential for the Belarusian exporters, has decreased,” Zabello reports, “and the situation won’t be getting much better any time soon.” She believes the amount of exports may even decrease in coming years.
Turning to another subject, Zabello points out that the Belarusian State controls “about 70% of the economy, making that part of the economy not so efficient” She says there have been a number of attempts at privatization over the years, but nothing successful of significance, except for certain transactions. “Investors have been waiting for mass privatization more than 20 years,” she says.
Ultimately, Zabello says, that according to the expectations of the World Bank there may be minor GDP growth next year (almost certainly less than 1%), “but real growth will take some time.”
At the same time, according to Zabello, “law firms are not generally in crisis,” and she concedes that some practices and firms remain active and show good results. Her own practice — Zabello specializes in Real Estate and Construction — falls into this category, she reports, noting that the recession makes it a good time for tenants and lessors, and a good time for big chain retailers to come into the country. “Property is cheap,” she says, “and there are no real local competitors, who are all in crisis.” As a result, “big players can come in and wait,” suggesting that a number of major chains have done just that in the past 12 months, including Leroy Merlin, Jysk, and Zara. As prices are at historical lows, “sellers are in crisis,” so it’s not a good time for developers, but it’s a good time for retailers — “not in terms of their general activity, but it’s a good time for investment” — and tenants.
In general the legal market is fairly stable, she says, “notwithstanding the fact that the market is in crisis,” and she points out that, as is common in such situations, firms with strong litigation/arbitration and bankruptcy practices are doing quite well.
There’s no real legislation of significance on the horizon, according to Zabello, and the only recent change of significance was the Amendment to Decree No. 10, regulating foreign investment issues, which entered into force this past spring. She notes that “the biggest aim of the government is to attract FDI,” and some of the changes enacted in that Amendment were quite good,” … but others were “not so good, and some actually made things worse.” She agreed with the suggestion that this sounds like a “mixed bag” at best.
In “The Buzz” we interview experts on the legal industry living and working in Central and Eastern Europe to find out what’s happening in the region and what legislative/professional/cultural trends and developments they’re following closely.
Sorainen has supported the Hesburger fast-food regional chains in launching its Belarus franchise.
According to Sorainen, the firm’s assistance “involved representing the client in negotiations with franchisee and localizing master franchise agreement under Belarus law within a constrained time frame.” The firm also advised on Heburger’s termination of its agreement with the previous franchisee.
The Sorainen team consisted of Partner Maksim Salahub and Associate Marina Golovnitskaya.
Revera has advised Renault on the construction of a new dealership in Soligorsk, in Belarus. The dealership opened on September 20, 2016, after half a year of construction.
The Soligorsk is Renault’s 10th dealership in the Republic of Belarus, and the fourth built with with Revera’s help, following similar projects in Grodno, Polotsk, and Minsk. The show-room has space for six cars, and the attached service center has seven stations. The total area is 880 square meters. According to Reveta, “the dealership is equipped with a 3D-configuration tool, has autos depot, parking places for clients, and territory for test-driving.”
The firm’s team was led by the Head of its Construction and Real Estate Practice Denis Bogdanov, supported by lawyers Olga Evmenchikova and Alexander Antonov.
Sorainen Belarus has advised Nuance Communications, an American multinational computer software technology corporation, on Belarusian aspects of its acquisition of TouchCommerce, a technology partner in digital customer service and engagement solutions.
Sorainen conducted a limited due diligence of TouchCommerce operations in Belarus, reviewed the intragroup contractual arrangements, and advised on intellectual property protection and employment issues. The firm’s team included Partner Maksim Salahub and Associates Kirill Laptev and Nadezhda Fomenok,
Primary adviser to Nuance Communications was Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Belarus’ Stepanovski, Papakul and Partners has announced the expansion of its practice into a new area: “the criminal law protection of business.” According to SPP it is “following the market demand and needs of our clients” in linking “our understanding of business specifics and potential risks faced by owners and managers with our experience in criminal case management.” To facilitate the expansion, the firm has brought criminal attorney Natalia Shekina on board.
“Practice shows that the vast majority of business managers and owners do not realize that in that very moment, when they commit legally significant acts, or sign business documents, they become potential perpetrators of misfeasance in office,” said SPP Managing Partner Alexander Stepanovski. “Our goal is both to solve the existing situations and, more importantly, prevent or minimize their occurrence in future. Same as tax risk assessment, which has always been a part of all our consultations, the criminal law compliance, as it is called by business, or, in simple words, risk assessment, will become yet another obligatory component of our work.”
According to Natalia Shekina, there two categories of cases involving criminal liability that occur most frequently in “economic activities”: malfeasance in office and economic crimes related to tax violations. “Speaking about malfeasance, such facts may take place without the official’s action, for example, in case of the official’s act of omission,” explained Shekina. “As regards economic crimes, even an accountant’s error may entail unpleasant consequences for business managers and owners. Unfortunately, a criminal law attorney is usually called after meeting with law enforcement agencies. However, many aspects could have been addressed earlier, during business process planning, and one could get prepared for them or avoid their occurrence.”