Category: Ukraine

Zoryana Sozanska-Matviychuk has been promoted to Partner and appointed as Head of M&A at Redcliffe Partners in Ukraine.

Sozanska-Matviychuk began her legal career as a Junior Attorney at Shevchenko Didkovskiy & Partners in 2004, before joining Baker & McKenzie in Kyiv in 2005. She spent three years (from 2007-2010) in Sydney, Australia with Baker before returning to Kyiv, and in October 2015 she moved to the Kyiv office of Clifford Chance, which two months later became Redcliffe Partners.

She obtained a degree from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2005, followed by a 2006 LL.M. at Griffith University in Australia.

“Zoryana’s partnership has been the most significant promotion since the beginning of Redcliffe Partners’ story three years ago,” said Redcliffe Managing Partner Olexiy Soshenko. “Her appointment as Head of M&A practice highlights our focus on this practice. We are also glad to contribute to gender balance, which is one of our main values.”

Redcliffe Partners, working alongside the Belgian office of Clifford Chance, has advised Straco BVBA on the acquisition of the Ukrainian mycoculture division of Greenyard NV. Allen & Overy and Sayenko Kharenko advised the sellers.

Straco BVBA is an independent investment fund located in Belgium that is engaged in real estate investment, project development, and private equity. Its mycoculture division produces and supplies phase two and phase three high quality growing media used by mushroom growers.

Redcliffe’s role in the transaction involved conducting legal due diligence of the Ukrainian target entities; advising on Ukrainian law matters relating to the share purchase transaction, including contributing to the preparation and execution of the transaction documentation; conducting post-signing confirmatory due diligence; and providing full legal support in relation to the pre-closing restructuring of the group companies.

The Redcliffe Partners team was led by Senior Associate Anna Pushkaryova and included Associates Yulia Brusko and Maria Grechko and Junior Associates Bogdan Nykytiuk and Anton Rekun, all working under the general supervision of Partner Dmytro Fedoruk.

Nobles has advised Western NIS Enterprise Fund on loans to Urban Space 500 and Veterano Brownie made within the Impact Investing Program.

According to Nobles, the Impact Investing Program is designed to support private businesses whose “primary objective [is] to bring social and environmental impact in Ukraine.” In partnership with Oschadbank and Kredobank, the program has been providing loans to social enterprises since 2015. 

Also, according to Nobles, “Restaurant Urban 500 is the first social restaurant in Kyiv that offers a platform for social initiatives. The company is committed to reinvesting 80 percent of the profit in social projects aimed at the development of the Ukrainian capital.” 

According to Nobles, Cafe Veterano Brownie, which is part of Veterano Group, “supports ATO veterans in getting back to normal life by reentering the workforce.” The cafe remits 10% from its profit to families of deceased veterans.  

“Social loans mechanisms are important for Ukrainian business,” said Nobles Partner Roman Shulyar. “They improve the investment climate in Ukraine and support meaningful entrepreneurship. Thus, we are delighted to support our longstanding client, Western NIS Enterprise Fund, in these transactions.”

Funded by the USAID, Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) is a USD 150 million regional fund in Ukraine and Moldova. For the past two decades WNISEF has been investing in small and medium-sized companies. 

Nobles’ team consisted of Partner Roman Shulyar and Associate Bogdan Burlaka.

Olena Omelchenko has made Partner at Ukraine’s Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm — the first lawyer to make partner at the firm since 2006.

Omelchenko, who joined Ilyashev & Partners in 2014, specializes in International Trade. According to Ilyashev & Partners, she “has 15 years’ substantial experience related to WTO rules, antidumping, safeguard and anti-subsidy investigations in Ukraine and abroad, application of regional preferential agreements, export control and economic sanctions, customs regulation and adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU legislation.” In addition, the firm reports, “the sphere of specialization of Olena Omelchenko includes support of antidumping, safeguard, anti-subsidy investigations in which she successfully advised well-known national and foreign industrial companies, major exporters and importers. Also, Olena has experience in the implementation of projects in the field of legal expertise and the development of draft laws and regulatory acts of Ukraine.”

“In recent years, we have noted the ever-growing demand for the services of the company in international trade,” said Mikhail Ilyashev, Managing Partner of Ilyashev & Partners, “which indicates the high quality of the firm’s services. The appointment of Olena Omelchenko, the head of practice, will allow us to effectively develop this practice in the future, and it also testifies to the high appreciation of her business and personal qualities. We understand that we are moving in the same direction with Olena and she is close to us in spirit. Together we can maintain the pace of development of our law firm.”

“I am grateful to my colleagues for their trust,” commented Omelchenko. “In a short time, the international trade law practice of Ilyashev & Partners has achieved the largest clients in the market and participated in interesting projects. I am glad to be a part of the firm and realize my potential with a team of like-minded people.”

Nobles has advised Wendeln, a privately-held German company, on the sale of a grain silo and processing facility near Kherson, in Ukraine.

Nobles reports that it “advised on arranging the bidding process, negotiating with several bidders, structuring the transaction (including tax issues and debt restructuring), and closing.”

The Nobles team was led by Partners Alexander Weigelt and Volodymyr Yakubovskyy and included Senior Associates Olena Stanishevska and Liudmyla Gorodnycha, and Associate Vasyl Fedorenko. Counsel Dennis Vergeles advised on tax aspects of the transaction.

Redcliffe Partners and Bird & Bird have advised the EBRD and the Clean Technology Fund on a EUR 15 million senior secured long-term loan to The I&U Group. Asters reportedly advised the I&U Group on the deal.

Redcliffe Partners provided advice on Ukrainian law and Bird & Bird provided English law advice. Additional advice was reportedly provided by Kinanis LLC in Cyprus and Quijano & Associates in the British Virgin Islands. 

The financing package consists of a EUR 13 million loan to be provided by the EBRD, and a EUR 2 million concessional loan provided by the Clean Technology Fund.

The financing is a loan and green-energy grant for the construction, equipment, and placing into operation of a 6 megawatt biogas facility, including the acquisition and installation of the grant-financed Items in the Kirovograd region of Ukraine. 

According to Redcliffe Partners, the “facilities’ feature is in the implementation of an innovative biogas production technology, allowing for a reduction in energy consumption and the use of residue from the biogas process as bio-fertilizers, which will replace chemical fertilizers. It is expected that the project will result in a total reduction of 24,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.”

The I&U Group is an agricultural holding company with sugar production and crop farming businesses in Ukraine.

Redcliffe’s team was supervised by Managing Partner Olexiy Soshenko and led by Counsel Olena Polyakova, supported by Associates Eduard Olentsevych, Anton Rekun, and Bogdan Nykytiuk.

The Bird & Bird team consisted of Partner Andrew Hallgarth, Associate Jennifer Bird, and Paralegal Patricia Wing.

The Ukrainian office of Wolf Theiss and the Estonian office of Sorainen have advised Rent24, an international co-working and co-living solutions company headquartered in Germany, on its entrance into the Ukrainian market in the form of a joint venture with Ukraine’s Chasopys Group.

Wolf Theiss describes Rent24 as “one of the largest German providers of co-working spaces offering its tenants not only a flexible and efficient workplace but also opportunities for networking with like-minded people,” and says that “Chasopys is one of the first Ukrainian companies that has stared this business and since its launch has significantly expanded its operations and opened several premises in Kyiv and Lviv.”

Wolf Theiss acted as the transactional counsel for Rent24 assisting the parties with structuring the transaction, advising on the corporate, investment, finance, real estate, tax, intellectual property and shareholders matters, preparing transactional documents, and assisting with closing the transaction. The firm’s Kyiv-based team was led by Partner Taras Dumych and included Senior Associate Oksana Volynets and Associates Olena Kravtsova and Mykhailo Razuvaiev. 

Sorainen’s Tallinn-based team consisted of Partner Piret Jesse and Associate Robin Teever, who provided advice on Estonian law.

Sayenko Kharenko has advised the EBRD, ProZorro.Sale, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in regard to the Open Government project in Ukraine, involving the implementation of e-government solutions based on the ProZorro concept.

The project was coordinated by the EBRD and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and involves setting up an entity to operate the electronic ProZorro.Sale trade system, an anti-corruption start-up.

ProZorro.Sale was supported by Western NIS Enterprise Fund, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Transparency International Ukraine, Embassy of the Netherlands, and charitable donations of Ukrainian business.

According to Sayenko Kharenko, ProZorro.Sale, which is based on Ukraine’s e-government solution for public procurement called ProZorro, “brought transparency and achieved outstanding financial results in the sale of insolvent banks’ assets, state and municipal property.”

Sayenko Kharenko’s team was led by Partner Oleksandr Nikolaichyk and included Associates Oksana Daskaliuk and Ilhar Hakhramanov and Junior Associates Tetiana Dyvak and Sviatoslav Kozak.

Eterna Law has advised Yuzhne Energy, the Ukrainian subsidiary of a Lithuanian company, on its investment in renewable energy systems and the development process of 72 megawatt wind power plant project in the Odesa Region of southwestern Ukraine.

According to Eterna’s press release, “the project in question is of a great importance, not only for the Odesa region for its development of local communities and improving the infrastructure of the Liman district, but for the country in general, increasing the portion of energy produced from renewable energy systems in a short-term prospective, creating new jobs, and facilitating direct investments in Ukraine.”

The Eterna Law team was led by Partner Maksym Uslystyi.

Sayenko Kharenko has acted as a Ukrainian legal counsel to the EBRD on its provision of a four-year UAH-denominated loan equivalent to EUR 10 million to LLC OTP Leasing.

According to Sayenko Kharenko, the loan is the first synthetic local currency loan to a Ukrainian leasing company to finance lease contracts to small and medium-sized enterprises across the country. The loan will address foreign exchange risks of local borrowers and is expected to enable the company to diversify its customer base.

In addition, according to Sayenko Kharenko, the transaction contemplates granting of up to EUR 1 million funding for SMEs under the EU4Business initiative supported by the European Union and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area between Ukraine and the EU. “The grants will be provided as investment incentives aiming to improve technology and production processes of SMEs in line with EU standards,” the firm reports.

Sayekno Kharenko’s team was led by Partner Nazar Chernyavsky and Counsel Igor Lozenko and included Junior Associates Vira Pankiv, Vladyslava Mitsai, and Oleksandra Maksymenko.