Category: Ukraine

Baker McKenzie has advised the World Bank and provided legal assistance to the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine on the latter’s development of legislation relevant to the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gases emissions data, procedures for accreditation of verifiers, and verification of greenhouse gases emissions reports.

According to Baker McKenzie, “following the review of the Draft Law on the Framework of Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification of GHG Emissions by the competent executive authorities, approval thereof by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Law was adopted and signed by the President of Ukraine on December 26, 2019.”

The Baker McKenzie team was led by Managing Partner Serhiy Piontkovsky and included Associate Nadiia Filozop.

Kinstellar has advised DEG, a subsidiary of the KfW Bankengruppe, on a long-term investment of up to USD 20 million in the Astarta Group.

Astarta is a Ukrainian agricultural company established in 1993 and operating some 240,000 hectares of farmland in Ukraine.

Part of DEG’s investment will be directed at modernizing Astarta’s production equipment to reduce the consumption of natural resources under Astarta’s “Best Available Technology” program.

Kinstellar’s team consisted of Counsel Andriy Nikiforov, Senior Associates Ganna Kalinichenko and Oleh Andreikiv, and Associates Viktoria Pysmenna and Julia Palaida.

Aequo has advised Dragon Capital on the acquisition of stake in Idea Bank JSC from Getin Holding S.A. Getin Holding was advised by Sayenko Kharenko.

Idea Bank has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1989. The bank’s sole shareholder is Getin Holding, a financial group with shares traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The group includes, among others, banks from Poland, Romania, and Belarus.

The acquisition is contingent on the approval of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine, as well as on other conditions precedent required to be fulfilled by the parties. 

Aequo’s team was supervised by Partner Yulia Kyrpa and included Counsel Bohdan Dmukhovsky, Senior Associate Mykhaylo Soroka, and Associates Anna Potapova, Olesia Mashtaler, and Oleksandra Kupriichuk.

Sayenko Kharenko’s team was led by Partner Alina Plyushch and included Senior Associate Dmitriy Riabikin and Associates Dmytro Hotsyn and Yaroslava Chernyshchuk.

Eterna Law has helped the Ukrainian branch of active Baltic power trader Axton Commodities launch its Ukrainian operations and obtain a power trading activities license in Ukraine.

According to Eterna Law, Axton Commodities, which is a member of the Nasdaq Nordic Commodities market, “is expected to be an active player with the newly established Ukrainian electricity market, utilizing its best expertise with other European countries.”

The Eterna Law team was led by Partner Maksym Uslysti, Senior Associate Mykhailo Lytvyn, and Junior Associate Vladyslav Zastup.

Nobles and Italy’s LCA Studio Legale have advised Dreamgroup Management, an Eastern European hostel operator, on the sale of its hostels in Warsaw, Prague, and Bratislava to London-based hostel operator Safestay plc. Eversheds Sutherland advised Safestay on the transaction, which is valued at approximately EUR 3.7 million.

The Nobles team was led by Partner Volodymyr Yakubovskyy and included Counsel Denys Vergeles and Junior Associate Yuliia Avdeiuk.

The LCA Studio Legale team was led by Lawyer Edoardo Calcatera.

Eversheds Sutherland’s Italy-based team was led by Partner Riccardo Bianchini Riccardi and included Senior Associate Alessandro Monti and Associate Gianludovico Maggi.

Sayenko Kharenko has advised the JSC State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine (Ukreximbank) on its issuance of USD 100 million subordinated loan participation notes, listed on the London Stock Exchange. The notes were issued by Biz Finance Plc., which applied the total principal amount of the issue towards financing a subordinated loan to the bank. Latham & Watkins and, reportedly, Avellum, advised J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, the joint leaders on the transaction, the total book order of which reached USD 300 million. White & Case reportedly advised Ukreximbank as well.

According to Sayenko Kharenko, “the State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine is a 100% state-owned bank which focuses on servicing export and import transactions and provides a broad range of corporate banking services for state-owned entities, and is the only bank acting as a financial agent for the government with respect to loans from foreign financial institutions.”

The Sayenko Kharenko team was led by Partner Anton Korobeynikov and included Associates Denis Nakonechyi, Vira Pankiv, and Oles Trachuk and Junior Associates Oleksandra Maksymenko and Sofia-Maria Kuzminska.

The Latham & Watkins team in Moscow included Partner David Stewart and Associates Vladimir Mikhailovsky and Viktoria Petukhova. Its team in London was led by Partner Lene Malthasen.

Baker McKenzie and Attorneys’ Association Gestors have assisted ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih in an anti-dumping investigation regarding the imports of carbon and other alloy steel rods originating from Belarus and Moldova.

The assistance provided by the two firms included preparing and submitting a complaint to the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine to launch the anti-dumping investigation; completing and submitting a questionnaire and comments to the Ministry of Economy in the course of the anti-dumping investigation, representing ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih during public hearings and negotiations; and providing legal assistance during the verification procedures. The anti-dumping investigation took almost 18 months.

The Baker McKenzie team included Managing Partner Serhiy Piontkovsky and Associate Nadiia Filozop.

Attorneys’ Association Gestors was represented by Managing Partner Andriy Tsvyetkov and Partner Yaroslav Snigur.

Asters has advised the EBRD on a EUR 10 million financing to the Kormotech Group.

According to Asters, ”Kormotech is one of the top three market players in the Ukrainian pet food market and the first and largest Ukrainian producer of high-quality pet food for cats and dogs. The company exports its production to over 25 countries.”

The funds from the EBRD are a part of Kormotech’s wider investment program, which includes the construction of a new production facility in Lithuania and the expansion of the group’s activities in Ukraine.

Asters’ team consisted of Partner Iryna Pokanay, Counsel Gabriel Aslanian, and Associates Inna Bondarenko and Viktoria Zagreba.

Freshfields and Avellum have advised the Netherlands-based Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group on the acquisition of Benteler Distribution Ukraine, a part of the international distribution division of Benteler International AG.

Avellum describes Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group as “one of the leading distributors of pipe and tube materials in Europe.”

The Avellum team was supervised by Co-Managing Partner Mykola Stetsenko and led by Associate Dmytro Symbiryov, with support from Associates Maryna Buinytska, Yuliia Chelebii-Kravchenko, and Oleksii Izotov.

Baker McKenzie has advised Remington Seeds on its acquisition of MAIS’s seed plant and farming operations in Ukraine.

Remington Seeds is a seed producer that has current operations in USA, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, France, Romania, Russia, and Uruguay.

MAIS is a Ukrainian agricultural company with more than 27 years of experience that is actively engaged in both horticulture and animal husbandry activities.

Baker McKenzie’s Kyiv-based team was led by Partners Oksana Simonova and Viacheslav Yakymchuk and included Associates Alyona Furda, Olga Mikheieva, Olena Naida, Nataliya Tyschenko, Elmaz Abkhairova, Ganna Smyrnova, and Uliana Lutchyn.

Baker McKenzie did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published Kinstellar announced that it had advised MAIS on the deal with Remington Seeds. According to Kinstellar, “the new joint venture, SEED CORP, will provide a full range of high-quality seed production services to international and domestic agricultural clients. It is located in the heart of Ukraine’s black soil region and has more than 5,000 hectares of irrigated agricultural land. SEED CORP owns one of the most modern seed production plants in Eastern Europe.”

The Kinstellar team was led by Counsel Iryna Nikolayevska and included Counsel Mykyta Nota and Senior Associates Oleh Andreikiv and Viktoriia Dobrynska.