AGA Partners has agreed to represent Danyil Boldyrev, the world champion and record-holder in high-speed climbing, within the framework of a “Legal Aid to Sport in Ukraine” project.
According to AGA Partners: “We hope our cooperation will contribute Denis to achieve new sports peaks, and will help us to achieve, of course, legal peaks. After all, it is no accident that our emblem is in the shape of a mountain.”
Daryna Sydorenko has joined Sayenko Kharenko as the coordinator of its Technology and Cybersecurity Group.
According to Sayenko Kharenko, “as a former in-house counsel at a Swiss RnD, a soft- and hardware engineering company, Daryna Sydorenko brings to the firm significant first-hand experience in the technology sector and understanding of clients’ needs at a time of great transformations introduced by the new economy.”
According to Sayenko Kharenko, “Daryna Sydorenko has a very wide skill set across intellectual property, technology and data protection, including significant expertise in advising Ukrainian and foreign IT companies on GDPR compliance, launching cloud service projects, fighting against patent trolls and parallel imports. She also has a unique experience of providing legal support to multi-jurisdictional technology companies with development offices in Ukraine, as well as advising tech start-ups on their first steps in business.”
Daryna studied law at Kyiv National Economic University and earned her Master’s degree with honors in Intellectual Property from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.
Sayenko Kharenko Partner Nazar Chernyavsky commented that: “The arrival of Daryna comes right in time when Technology, Telecom and Cybersecurity industry group of Sayenko Kharenko is getting increasingly busy with all new challenges of this millennium, including massive penetration of technology in our everyday life, related increase in regulation, growing concerns over data privacy and security, as well as appearance of new tech entrepreneurs disrupting the market.”
Sayenko Kharenko will be the legal representative on Ukrainian law matters for the companies in the Porsche Ukraine Group, including Porsche Ukraine LLC and Porsche Inter Auto Ukraine LLC, on all issues that may arise in connection with the companies’ business activities in Ukraine.
Porsche Ukraine, founded in 2008, is a part of Porsche Holding Salzburg, and Sayenko Kharenko describes it as “Europe’s largest automotive retail company, operating in 22 countries throughout Europe, as well as in China, South America, and Malaysia.”
Sayenko Kharenko’s team for the Porsche Ukraine project is led by Counsel Sergiy Smirnov and includes Associates Kuzma Pozychaniuk, Igor Voronov, and Volodymyr Adonin, all working under the general supervision of Partner Sergey Pogrebnoy.
Vasil Kisil & Partners has represented the European Business Association in administrative litigation regarding Resolution N231 of March 16, 2017 of Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers.
According to VKP, “the Resolution involves a wide range of technically complex items from smartphones, routers, and groups of domestic appliances to drones, quadcopters, and other items used in different areas that must be sold using cash registers.”
On May 30, 2018, VKP persuaded the court that the European Business Association should join the case as a third party on the Cabinet of Ministers side. According to VKP, “the significance of this litigation process lies in the fact that the appealed Resolution is to be an essential component of reforms aimed at civilized approach of doing business and good-faith sale of products in Ukraine.”
The VKP team consisted of Managing Partner Andriy Stelmashchuk, Senior Associate Tetyana Berezhna, and Associate Viktor Hrabovskyi.
Ilyashev & Partners has succesfully represented the Ukrainian Association of Ferroalloys Producers and Other Electrometallurgy Products in an anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of ferro-silicon originating in Egypt and Ukraine.
The decision to terminate the investigation without imposing duties was published on the website of the European Commission on June 4, 2018.
This is the first European Commission anti-dumping investigation in ten years which resulted in no anti-dumping measures being implemented concerning the imports of goods originating in Ukraine.
On June 19, 2017 the Association of European Ferroalloy Producers lodged a complaint concerning alleged dumped imports of ferro-silicon originating in Egypt and Ukraine, leading the European Commission to initiate its anti-dumping investigation. The Association represents the interests of major European producers of ferrosilicon, including Ferropem, Ferroatlantica SL, OFZ, and Huta Laziska SA.
According to Ilyashev & Partners, “the successful result has been achieved due to the joint efforts with Jones Day International Law Firm, the representatives of the ferroalloy industry, in particular, PJSC Zaporizhzhya Ferroalloy Plant, as well as the Ukrainian Association of the Ferroalloys Producers and Other Electrometallurgy Products, and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.”
The Ilyashev & Partners team working on the case was led by Head of International Trade Olena Omelchenko.
The Kyiv Office of Baker McKenzie and the Department of Law of the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy have agreed to cooperate on the implementation and development of a Commercial Law Certificate Program.
The Memorandum of Cooperation was signed by Denys Azarov, Dean of the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’s (NaUKMA) Department of Law, and Serhiy Chorny, Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie in Ukraine, on May 31, 2018.
NaUKMA’s Department of Law will launch the Certificate Program within its LLM degree course in the 2018-2019 academic year. According to Baker McKenzie, the program will provide LLM students with “high quality training and practical skills development for further work in various areas of commercial law, as well as for representation of clients in international commercial transactions.”
Baker McKenzie’s lawyers will be involved in teaching specific courses and topics and will participate in improving the curriculum of the Certificate Program. Distinguished students will be offered an internship at Baker McKenzie’s Kyiv Office.
“We [would like for the] Kyiv-Mohyla Academy to achieve [the same] quality level in the educational process and [the same] international recognition that Oxford and Harvard currently have,” said Chorny. “Our significant European country deserves a center of legal education of such a caliber. The introduction of a modern, market-oriented Certificate Program, including the Program in Commercial Law, is a step forward in achieving this goal”.
Avellum has advised the EBRD in connection with a senior secured loan of up to EUR 9.5 million to Nova Poshta LLC.
Nova Poshta is an express delivery company in Ukraine, with 2,300 depots all over the country. It offers international delivery services to over 200 countries and employs more than 23,000 people.
According to Avellum, “this is one of the first UAH/EUR multi-currency loan extended to a Ukrainian company by the EBRD. The loan employs innovative UAH/EUR multi-currency mechanics aimed at reducing the interest rate cost of the foreign exchange risk. This helps to achieve a better cost of funding in UAH, which would further strengthen the EBRD’s position in local currency lending in Ukraine.”
The loan proceeds will be used to finance the design and construction of a new automated parcel-sorting terminal in the city of Khmelnytskyi, and to purchase the equipment for the terminal. Once operational, the terminal will allow Nova Poshta to enhance the efficiency of its human resource use and to optimize its operating costs.
The Avellum team was led by Senior Partner Glib Bondar, supported by Counsel Taras Dmukhovskyy and Associates Tetiana Mykhailenko, Orest Franchuk, Oleg Krainskyi, and Anna Mykhalova.
The Ukrainian government has declared its intention to implement the success story of European countries in the sphere of public-private partnerships. In order to implement those ambitious plans the government has established a Project Office for PPP to work closely with international investors and lobby for relevant legislative improvements.
Although it is too early to describe the efforts of the Ukrainian government related to PPP projects as a major success, some steps in the right direction have already been taken.
The most important recent development in Ukrainian legislation is the draft “On Concessions” law that was prepared with the involvement of international consultants to replace the few outdated laws on concessions that exist now. The new law would provide for an appropriate allocation of risks between the public and private sectors, simplify the tender procedure, and provide financing institutions the right to change the project company. In addition, the law would fill in gaps in legislation regarding land plot allocation issues and unify the rules for all types of concession projects (such as roads or concession in the sphere of public services).
However, since the adoption of the new law on concessions is still in progress, investors are encouraged to initiate their investment projects based on the lease of state property. Although the lease mechanism is simple and well-tested, it has a number of drawbacks. In particular, a lease agreement would not provide for a correlation between rent payments and the investor’s results of commercial activities. Therefore, for existing investors not satisfied with their lease agreements, the draft law envisages the transformation of a lease into a concession. Unfortunately, that transformation is not going to be automatic and would require the cooperation of various authorities — which could potentially block the process at any stage.
The results of the draft law’s implementation are going to be tested in the field. The government is currently developing three pilot projects in Ukrainian ports. Particularly, a concession mechanism is planned to be implemented in the Specialized Sea Port Olvia (at the Dnieper-Bug estuary), the Commercial Sea Port Kherson, and the Ferry Terminal in the Sea Commercial Port of Chornomorsk. The Ukrainian government expects these projects to attract USD 300 million in investments in the modernization of existing port infrastructure, as well as in the development of new assets (for example, there is a plan to construct a grain terminal and oil-extracting factory in the Specialized Sea Port Olvia). The preparation and implementation of these projects is supported by International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Recently, the Ukrainian government has also made a number of institutional transformations and changes. For example, 2018 began with the establishment of the Maritime Administration by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (CMU), which is expected to function as a central office in the maritime sphere and coordinate the work of Ukrainian sea ports, ensure the safety of maritime navigation, and ensure international cooperation. The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority has already been created to manage strategic infrastructural objects and facilities in the seaports.
Government officials have announced plans to build a new “Silk Road,” starting in Ukrainian ports and going through Georgian ports, then Baku and Kazakhstan, to China. With those plans comes the understanding that the port duties in Ukrainian ports should be competitive. Therefore, on January 1st, 2018 the CMU reduced port duties by 20%. However, even after this reduction, the amount of port duties to be paid is very high compared to other ports in the Black Sea region.
The Ukrainian government’s changes are not limited to sea ports, and there are a lot of projects in other infrastructure sectors as well. For example, the construction of the first Ukrainian toll road is being prepared and developed by Ukrainian authorities, and at the end of February the Ukrainian Parliament approved legislative changes simplifying the procedure of concession in the sphere of roads.
Although all these tasks are challenging for the Ukrainian government, the Ministry of Infrastructure would like to implement a very high-flying project. Volodymyr Omelyan, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, announced that the country would like to build a platform for Hyperloop testing. Should these ambitious plans materialize, relevant changes to legislation may be expected.
By Oleksandr Kurdydyk, Partner, and Kateryna Soroka, Of Counsel, DLA Piper
This Article was originally published in Issue 5.3 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.
Former Sayenko Kharenko lawyer Mykyta Polatayko has moved to Aequo, where he will lead the firm’s IT industry group.
According to Aequo, Polatayko advises “multinationals and early stage technology companies on a wide range of issues from acquisition of local IT business and setting up development offices in Ukraine to copyright transfer and effective tax structuring. Throughout his career, Mykyta has specialized in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, information security, and data protection, as well as on e-commerce regulation and use of e-signatures.”
For several years, the firm reports, “he has been actively participating in various public initiatives aimed to consolidate professional IT law community and develop legislation.”
Before joining Aequo in April 2018, Polatayko worked spent a little over four years with Sayenko Kharenko. Until November 2013 he was CEO of SmartDoc, Ukraine’s first legal tech start-up, which he founded in 2011.
Polatayko received his law degree from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
CMS has advised HNA Group on the sale of equipment service provider TIP Trailer Services to I Squared Capital, an independent infrastructure investment manager. Linklaters advised I Squared Capital on the acquisition.
Headquartered in Amsterdam and operating in 17 countries, TIP serves markets across Europe including Germany, the UK, Italy, France, and the Benelux countries, as well as in Canada. It has a fleet of over 66,000 trailers and 86 trailer service centers.
HNA Group focuses on aviation and tourism, logistics, and financial services.
CMS’s cross-border team was led by Ukraine-based Managing Partner Graham Conlon, and included a London-based team consisting of Senior Associate Valentina Santambrogio, Associates Jamie Burgess and Jason Todd, and Trainee Solicitor Julian Goering.
The London Linklaters team included Partner Will Aitken-Davies and Managing Associates Peter McCabe and Edward Lane.