Category: Russia

White & Case has advised VTB Capital as auction organizer and financial advisor to UTLC on its RUB 60.3 billion (around USD 968 million) auction sale of a controlling stake in Russian railway container operator TransContainer.

UTLC is a subsidiary of Russian Railways, the Russian state railway operator. According to White & Case, “Delo Group, a Russian diversified group owned by businessman Sergey Shishkarev, won the auction with a RUB 60.3 billion bid for a 50 percent stake plus two shares in TransContainer.”

White & Case’s team in Moscow was led by Partner Nikolay Feoktistov and included Associates Evgeny Chernyavsky and Valery Lavrov.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner Russia has advised Enisey THC, a subsidiary of the Siberian Generating Company, on its RUB 10 billion acquisition of Krasnoyarsk GRES-2 from OGK-2.

The deal includes movable and real estate of Krasnoyarsk GRES-2, coal reserves, spare parts, and other logistical resources.

BCLP’s team included Advisers Inna Firsova, Anna Selenskaya, and Oksana Orlovskaya and Junior Lawyer Mikhail Yerokhin.

BCLP did not reply reply on our inquiry on the matter.

CMS Moscow’s Head of Real Estate & Construction Artashes Oganov has been promoted to Partner at the firm.

According to CMS, “Oganov has extensive experience of working on a broad spectrum of real estate projects. He advises clients on both domestic and cross-border M&A transactions involving commercial and residential properties, joint ventures in the real estate sector as well as secured financing for construction and acquisition of properties.” According to the firm, “[he] also represents landlords and tenants on all issues, ranging from simple to complex lease agreements on offices, retail premises, and warehousing facilities.”

“Our Real Estate & Construction practice has shown impressive growth over the past years,” commented Managing Partner Jean-Francois Marquaire, “and Artashes, with his exceptional skills and depth of knowledge, will continue to develop this strategically important sector for us, providing clients with comprehensive legal support on real estate projects of any complexity.”

Oganov is a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Prior to joining CMS he spent almost three years with Beiten Burkhardt and over nine years with Salans/Dentons.

Russian lawyer Vakhtang Fedorov has joined Art De Lex as Head of its Criminal Law practice.

Art De Lex describes Fedorov as “a well-known expert in criminal law and process with 20 years of experience in economic and corruption, official, and commercial crimes.” According to the firm “he represented companies and individuals in cooperation with supervisory and law enforcement agencies.”

According to Art De Lex, “Fedorov has a unique experience in organizing successful protection in criminal cases related to economic activities, including in the financial sector, industry and trade. He defended the head of a large jewelry holding, [accused] of committing several episodes of fraud on a particularly large scale. He is currently representing the former head of Russia’s leading space industry, [who is] accused of abuse of power.”

Dmitry Magonya, Managing Partner of Art De Lex, described Fedorov’s joining as “an important event for the firm, which will significantly strengthen the criminal practice of Art De Lex. [Fedorov’s] international experience will help further develop international Art De Lex projects, especially [our] Turkish Desk.”

Liniya Prava is an official partner to Russia’s “Great Heart” charity fund.

According to Liniya Prava, “two years ago, Sberbank employees launched the ‘Great Heart’ social project to help adult cancer patients, and Valeriya Kachura, counsel at the Liniya Prava law firm was invited to provide legal assistance. In 2018, the project became the winner of the Sberbank social projects contest and in 2019 turned into the ‘Great Heart’ Charity Fund to Help Adult Cancer Patients.”

The fund was the first in Russia to provide comprehensive support to adult cancer patients, Liniya Prava reports, noting that “everyone who applies to the call center can receive psychological assistance, legal advice, and a doctor’s consultation.” According to the firm, “Liniya Prava supported the initiative and became an official partner of the Fund and Valeria Kachura joined the Board of Trustees and will continue to advise on legal issues to all who need help.”

The Russian Migration Authority responsible for the Moscow region recently started to enforce laws requiring foreign employees to be present in Russia at regular intervals, and providing for the cancellation of a work permit if a foreign employee is not in Russia at least at certain intervals. This potential cancellation of a work permit even applies to employees classified as highly qualified specialists.

A work permit can be cancelled based on the statutory requirement that every holder of a work permit must be present in Russia at least once in any six-month period in order to keep a work permit valid (Art. 18 section 9 subsection 9 of Federal Law No. 115-FZ dated 25 July 2002 “On Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation”). Even though this legal requirement has existed for years, until recently, we had never heard of a European citizen’s work permit being cancelled by the Russian Migration Authority. In light of this new enforcement practice, we recommend checking to be sure that all foreign employees, especially those who visit Russia only occasionally, are present in Russia on a regular basis.

By Olga Mokhonko, Counsel, and Anna Fufurina, Senior Associate, Noerr

Finland’s Castren & Snellman law firm has closed its Moscow and St Petersburg offices and withdrawn from Russia.

Castren & Snellman established its St Petersburg office in 1994 and expanded its operations to Moscow in 2007. Those teams will now join Russia’s Capital Legal Services law firm. Going forward, the firm reports, it is “continuing to support its clients by deepening cooperation with … Capital Legal Services. C&S will remain a strong Russian expert and advisor in commercial law in Finland.”

‘We are happy to have found a respected partner in Russia with the drive and excellent plans to develop local client work even further,” said Heidi Paalanen-Koev, Castren & Snellman’s Partner in Charge of the Russian offices. “Client service will continue seamlessly despite the change as our key personnel transfer to CLS. We are confident that we will be able to offer our clients as good, if not even better, service through the extensive services and expertise of this strong local firm.”

We are very happy to welcome new colleagues to our team, with their many years of experience in providing reliable support to Finnish and other foreign companies doing business in Russia,” said Capital Legal Services’s Managing Partner Vladislav Zabrodin. “By combining the strengths of our firms, we can offer clients top grade service, allowing all clients to continue doing successful business on the Russian market, which can sometimes be a challenge indeed.”

“Our experience is that our clients value the partnerships we have with top-tier local law firms and the high quality of our own work,” said Sakari Lukinmaa, Managing Partner of Castren & Snellman. “Our international business strategy has proven highly successful, and our cooperation with CLS will support this strategy.”

Dmitry Koronchik, former Director of Legal Affairs at YIT, has joined Accountor as the head of its legal department.

Koronchik has over 18 years of experience. According to Accountor, ”over the years, Dmitry has specialized in M&A transactions, support of major construction and investment projects, company establishment and reorganization as well as corporate issues. At Accountor, Dmitry manages a team of 14 lawyers and is in charge of supporting client projects.”

“I’m truly pleased to have joined this team of professionals who have so successfully established themselves in the market of accounting, legal, audit, and other services,” Koronchik commented. “I’m impressed by Accountor’s way of doing business, and I hope that I’ll be able to contribute to the achievement of the company’s ambitious goals.” 

Koronchik graduated with honors from the Law Faculty of the President Russian Academy of National Economy and State Administration. Prior to joining Accountor, he spent almost three years as a senior associate with Hellevig, Klein & Usov, over three and a half years with the Pepeliaev Group, almost two years as the Head of Legal at Amtel Properties Development, almost six years in the same position with Lemminkainen, and over a year as the Director of Legal Affairs at YIT.

Former Dentons Partner Konstantin Tretyakov, who led the firm’s White Collar Crime practice in Moscow, has joined Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, bringing along his team, including senior lawyer Konstantin Elfimov and lawyer Maria Kilesso.

According to EPAM, “Konstantin Tretyakov has more than 20 years of practical experience in the field of criminal law, of which 15 years as a lawyer. He successfully represents the interests of principals in law enforcement bodies and in courts of various instances on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

“The main specialization of Konstantin Tretyakov,” EPAM reports, “is at the junction of criminal, civil, and other areas of law and includes crimes in the field of business and economic activity, fraud, abuse of authority, crimes in the field of tax operations and money laundering, and illegal actions during bankruptcy. His team has accounted for a number of high-profile economic cases.”

“It is a great honor for me to become part of a team that is significant on the market,” said Tretyakov. “I am sure that the experience and potential of my team will be a significant plus for the successful implementation of defense strategies in the interests of the firm’s clients, and will also strengthen the position of the practice and the company in the market as a whole.“

On December 18, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that NSP had advised IBS IT Holding on its acquisition of Aplana Software from the Aplana Group. We reached out to Eugene Peskin, Head of Strategy at IBS, for more details.

CEELM: To start, what is Aplana Software, and what was the business case behind the acquisition?

Peskin: Aplana Software is a leading Russian software testing company that provides software testing services to blue-chip Russian companies, in banking and other industries where the software development cycle is fast and demanding, while quality is a superior requirement. The business complements nicely our portfolio of B2B IT services, and bringing Aplana in fits IBS’s overall strategy of increasing services share of our revenue and profitability.

CEELM: What was the most complex/challenging aspect of this transaction and how did you deal with it?

Peskin: For several reasons this transaction effectively had a very limited time window — if we hadn’t been able to meet the deadline the deal could have fallen apart. To address that we assigned two top managers to our acquisition team (which included the CFO and me) and tasked them with resolving the most complex issues overnight (naturally within the mandate from our board) to them.

CEELM: What aspects of the deal were handled by your in-house team and which did you externalize to your outside counsel?

Peskin: For this particular deal we heavily relied on our outside counsel. 

CEELM: Why did you pick NSP specifically for this deal?

Peskin: We have previously worked with NSP on several projects, and, as time was of the essence, we capitalized on our good working rapport with the NSP team.

CEELM: What, if any, are the steps that you and your team need to take to consider this matter closed from a legal input perspective?

Peskin: From a legal point the transaction is accomplished. We have entered the integration phase and we also are gradually switching our brand to IBS Appline (registration pending).