Category: Ukraine

Sayenko Kharenko has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to joint lead managers J.P. Morgan Securities plc and ING Bank N.V., London Branch in connection with the cash tender offer with respect to USD 750 million 8.25 percent notes due 2020 and the issue of new USD 500 million 7.75 percent notes due 2024 by MHP S.A. MHP was advised by Avellum on Ukrainian law and Freshfields on English law.

MHP is one of the largest agro-industrial companies in Ukraine, and focuses on the production of poultry and cultivation of grain.

This is the second corporate bond issuance of the year from Ukraine, following the debut Eurobond issue by Kernel in January 2017.

Sayenko Kharenko’s team operating under the general supervision of Partner Nazar Chernyavsky was led by Senior Associate Iryna Bakina and Associate Olga Kyriusha. It also included Senior Associates Oleg Klymchuk and Maria Tsabal and Associates Oksana Andronyk and Taras Shyb.

The Avellum team advising MHP included Senior Partner Glib Bondar, Counsel Igor Lozenko, Senior Associate Vadim Medvedev, and Associates Anna Melnychuk, Pavlo Shevchenko, Yuriy Zaremba, Tetiana Mykhailenko, Anastasiya Voronova, Orest Franchuk, Dmytro Tkachuk, Olga Tersina, and Vladyslav Aleksandrov.

Dentons’ Kyiv office has acted as legal counsel to the Ingenico Group on its acquisition of the payment activities business of Bancomzvjazok JSC (BKC) through the purchase of 100% of the shares in a newly created legal entity, SST (Systems of Secure Transactions). 

BKC has been a partner and distributor of Ingenico Group in Ukraine since 1997. The transaction involved the carve-out of BKC’s payment activities business unit to SST. 

The deal will expand France-based Ingenico’s footprint in Ukraine. According to Dentons, “with 40 employees, SST brings extensive knowledge of the local market and strong relationships with leading Ukrainian banks. SST also provides software development services to various entities within Ingenico Group in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Africa.”

Dentons’ team was led by Partner Adam Mycyk, with assistance from Senior Associates Anna Tkachenko and Nikolay Zhovner, as well as from Partner Volodymyr Monastyrskyy. Other Associates involved in the transaction included Borys Schwarzer, Oksana Horban, and Roman Mehedenyuk.

Aequo has advised Piraeus Bank Ukraine on Ukrainian law matters related to an uncommitted trade facility of up to EUR 5 million from the European Bank for EBRD.

The loan was made within the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Program (TFP), which is designed to promote international trade to, from, and within the EBRD countries of operations, including Ukraine. Through the Program, the EBRD provides guarantees to international confirming banks, taking the political and commercial payment risk of international trade transactions undertaken by banks in the countries of operations.

The Aequo team was led by Partner Yulia Kyrpa, who reported that “it was a privilege to have contributed to the implementation of the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme and Piraeus Bank’s strategy of financing the Ukrainian real sector of economy. Having EBRD as a guarantor will enable Piraeus Bank to increase the volume of export and import operations of its customers. This is an important transaction for Piraeus Bank, our longstanding client, and demonstrates Aequo’s strengths in banking and finance.”

Kyrpa was supported by Aequo Senior Associate Denys Kulgavyi and Associate Valeriy Savva.

Aequo informed CEE Legal Matters that it was unaware which firm had advised the EBRD on the matter.

Asters, represented by Partner Vadym Samoilenko and Associate Maryana Sayenko, has joined the working group for the establishment of a medical cluster as part of the the V. I. Vernadsky Tavriyskiy National University organized under the auspices of the Government of Ukraine. 

According to Asters, “the project provides for the establishment of an American-type Medical Cluster, aimed at, among other things, researching and implementing advanced methods of treatment and rehabilitation using telecommunication and electronic (computer) technologies.

According to Asters, “Partner Vadym Samoilenko is confident that this Medical Cluster will not only be an unprecedented scientific and practical platform for the further development of the healthcare sphere in Ukraine, but will also create a fertile ground for the exchange of experience among the leading medicine experts from Ukraine, Europe and the United States.”

“We decided to participate in the project,” Samoilenko commented in a statement released by the firm, “because this medical cluster will be able to provide serious support for our country’s access to the world level of medical care and, remarkably, will facilitate Ukrainian medical personnel to gain proficiency in the most innovative and progressive methods of treatment and rehabilitation.”

Alexander Borodkin, Partner at Vasil Kisil & Partners in Ukraine, is asked what lawyers are talking about in his country at the moment. “I would say they’re talking about new investments,” Borodkin answers. 

Indeed, Borodkin says, “starting from October or November of last year we feel there’s a little more activity in the legal market. Slowly things are picking up. The driving reasons could be a certain kind of stability over the last few years. We’ve reduced inflation, and there’s some stability in the East. This environment is giving business people some predictability, which is good for the market, not only in the form of restructurings and asset sales — things lawyers have been doing over the past few years to stay busy — but now actually in the form of investments. Businessmen are picking up the money from under their mattresses, and placing it in undervalued assets.” As a result, Borodkin says with a smile, “those who know the market — or who think they know the market better than others — they’re buying and investing.” 

Borodkin reports seeing an uptick in activity from Israeli investors. “Normally it would be the Russians, of course, but now not so much, as one by one Russian investors and business are withdrawing from the country.” He says Turkish and Polish investors are exploring opportunities as well, though no big deals have closed yet. Borodkin says, “maybe in 2-3 years we’ll see the rest of Europe, and the Arabs. Maybe in 5-10 years even the US or China.”

“I would mention two sectors as particularly active,” he says. “above and beyond agriculture, which has stayed strong over previous years.” The first Borodkin mentions is real estate: “mostly residential real estate — social class (cheap apartment buildings).” He says there are no free land plots in the market, “so investors are forced to take commercial land, rezone it, get all the permits. So it’s difficult to do it. But they’re doing it.”

The second active market at the moment is energy, Borodkin reports particularly in the form of renewables. “Even though we’ve lost Crimea, which is great for renewables, the Kherson region next door is also very good.” Unlike many of its western neighbors the Ukrainian government hasn’t yet pulled back from its incentives, he says, so both wind and solar projects are growing.

Turning to the ongoing reform of Ukrainian legislation, Borodkin emphasizes the positive. “legislation is urrently being reformed in many areas, particularly in the judiciary system, of course. Is it working? It depends on what you compare it to. I had a case in Hungary recently where it took me a year to get a letter of enforcement, but even in ‘corrupt’ Ukraine you can get that in a month or two.” Still, he says, “but of course it could be better.” In any event, Borodkin notes, the question is less about the need for legislative reform than it is about the effectiveness of efforts to implement that reform. “The law is always changing,” he smiles. “It’s not that difficult to change the law. But it can be difficult to implement those changes. Like with Court reform. We have the laws — but changing the institution itself is the great challenge.”

Ilyashev & Partners has successfully represented the interests of the Ukrainian DIY hypermarket chain Epicentr K in a review of safeguard measures concerning the import of porcelain tableware and kitchenware into Ukraine regardless of their country of origin and export.

The review was started at the end of 2016 on the initiative of Druzhkovskyi Porcelain Factory LLC, aiming to extend the application of a special protective duty for an additional three years.

According to Ilyashev & Partners, “the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade decided not to extend the safeguard measures.”

“The cancellation of safeguard measures concerning the import to Ukraine of tableware and kitchenware of porcelain will help to increase the volume of imports of goods, reduce the deficit of utensils in the domestic market and expand the range of goods for food outlets and households,” commented Olena Omelchenko, Head of the International Trade practice at Ilyashev & Partners. “Such a result serves the interests of the consumers, international and national interests of Ukraine, and has a positive economic effect because it will allow bringing UAH 270 million to the State Budget of Ukraine each year.”

DLA Piper is announcing that Alla Kozachenko has been appointed as Head of Corporate and M&A practice in the firm’s Kyiv office.

Kozachenko specializes in Corporate/M&A and Contract and Labor law. According to DLA Piper, “for more than 15 years, she has been advising Ukrainian and foreign clients working in various sectors, including pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, hospitality, IT.” She received Master’s degrees at the Taras Shevchenko Institute of International Relations at Kyiv National University in 2002 and the Institute of Intellectual Property and Law in 2005. 

Kyiv Managing Partner Margarita Karpenko commented that: “Alla started working as an Associate in the firm and thanks to her exceptional talent and business potential has become not only a strong transactional lawyer, but also an undoubted leader. I believe that Alla’s professional experience will promote further practice’s development.”

Lavrynovych & Partners has provided free legal assistance on the establishment of Starenki charitable foundation, which supports single elderly people in Kyiv by providing them with food and household goods.

Partner Olena Zubchenko, who leads the project, explained that: “The team of Lavrynovych & Partners, being a part of the responsible professional legal community of Ukraine, invests time and effort in supporting pro bono initiatives which aim at helping the most vulnerable population. We were pleased to take this opportunity to join the project, which effectively solves the urgent problems of low-income elderly people.”

Integrites Partner Olena Perepelynska has been elected to the board of the Russian Arbitration Association at its April 20, 2017 annual general meeting in Moscow.

The Russian Arbitration Association was founded in April 2013 in Moscow to unite legal practitioners, law firms, and academics. The Association represents broad interests of the business, legal, and education communities involved in alternative dispute resolution in Russia and CIS. 

According to Integrites, “the main objective of the Association is cooperation in the development of arbitration in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries, popularizing Russia as a venue for arbitration, promotion of Russian arbitrators at national and international levels within the arbitration context, as well as the promotion of foreign arbitrators interested in arbitral proceedings, directly or indirectly relating to Russia and the CIS countries. [The] Global Arbitration Review Guide to Regional Arbitration [has] several times denoted RAA [as] among [those] arbitration centers ‘worth a closer look’  in Eastern Europe.”

The 13 arbitration practitioners elected to the the RAA Board will serve a three-year term. 

Perepelynska is the President of the Ukrainian Arbitration Association, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), and is, according to Integrites, “included in the lists of arbitrators of the leading arbitral institutions of Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, and Vietnam.”