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Integrites is representing the Samsung C & T Corporation in a large commercial dispute between it and an unnamed company, which Integrites reports is “the largest manufacturer of transformer equipment in the CIS and Europe.”

According to the firm, the dispute involves charges that Samsung failed to make timely payment for equipment supplied by the Ukrainian company. Although no additional details were provided, Integrites reports that, “during the period of this project Mediation and Restructuring lawyers Igor Torshin and Vladimir Denisenko, led by Dispute Resolution Partner Aliona Siverskaya, managed to restructure its debt, resulting in the bulk of the debt being paid to the lender.”

Skadden Arps, Akin Gump, Fried Frank, and Hogan Lovells played various roles in United Capital Partners’ sale of a 48 per cent stake in social media site VK.Com Limited (the holding company of VKontakte.Ru, Russia’s largest social online networking service, known as “Russia’s Facebook”) to Mail.Ru Group Limited.

Mail.Ru first bought a stake in VK.com in 2007. Subsequent acquisitions — including the 12% share owned by VK.com founder Pavel Durov (through his company Bullion Development) — allowed Mail.Ru to accumulate a 52% stake in the company. The sale, which was completed on September 16, 2014, thus now gives Mail.Ru 100% ownership of VK.com. 

According to a Mail.Ru statement, “taking into account the price paid for the other 52% of VK since the first investment in 2007 this makes the total acquisition cost of VK USD 2.07 billion. Mail.ru funded the deal with its existing cash and with a RUB 22.2 billion (USD 585 million at CBR rate) 11.5% fixed rate 4 year loan from Gazprombank.”  

The transaction also brings to an end litigation and arbitration between the companies involving the ownership of the “Telegram” secure messaging app developed by Durov, and according to that same Mail.Ru statement, “claims concerning VK and related matters between these parties will be dropped with immediate effect.”  

In 2013 VK had revenue growth of 14% to RUB 3.8 billion with EBITDA growth of 32% to RUB 1 billion and net profit of RUB 53 million. In the first half of this year VK had revenues of RUB 2 billion with EBITDA of RUB 694 million and net income of RUB 248 million.  

The formal Mail.Ru statement about the transaction included comments from all three parties to the deal and litigation. Dmitry Grishin, the Co-Founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group, said that: “We are happy to announce the acquisition of 48,01% of VKontakte stake from UCP. The consolidation of 100% of VK and the termination of all outstanding shareholder disputes will allow focus on the product and its further development. We respect the successful results driven by VK’s team and do not plan any significant changes in the team or the product itself. Moreover, we are ready to give the current team an opportunity to realize their plans and initiatives.” The Lawyer reports that Akin Gump Partner Artem Faekov led the team advising USM Holdings, the majority owner of Mail.Ru, and Hogan Lovells’s representation of Mail.Ru in the litigation was led by Partner Kieron O’Callaghan and Associate Ben Hornan.    

Victoria Lazareva, Partner of UCP, said: “We are satisfied with the transaction and confirm full settlement and release of the mutual claims between the parties. We wish further successful growth for the business of VK.” Skadden has confirmed that its representation of UCP was led by Partners Lorenzo Corte and Dmitri Kovalenko and Counsel Lisa Giroux, as well as Litigation Partners David Kavanagh, Tim Nelson, Lea Haber Kuckk, and Patrick Heneghan and Counsels David Edwards and Gregory Litt.   

And Pavel Durov stated that: “I welcome the decision of my former partners to abandon their claims toward Telegram and to transfer the American entities under my control. For my part I acknowledge the dismissal of claims against UCP and congratulate all parties involved in the settlement.” The Lawyer reports that Durov’s company — Bullion — was represented in the London Court of International Arbitration by Quinn Emanuel Partners Sue Prevezer and Alex Gerbi, and Durov was advised by Fried Frank’s London-based Litigation Partner Justin Michaelson, who was assisted by Partners Richard May and David Morris and Associates Shivani Sanghi, James West, and Justin Santolli.

Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has advised Wienerberger on the complete takeover of the Tondach group, which will now become, “a full-fledged member of Wienerberger group.” The firm reports that it also assisted in the related complex financing restructuring, which involved several jurisdictions, and concluded with the closing on September 18.

“This transaction was very interesting for fwp, since we had to reconcile the interests of banks from several jurisdictions and reach an agreement for Wienerberger AG,” stated Fellner Wratzfeld Partner Markus Fellner. “A challenge that we managed to meet very successfully,” 

Tondach Gleinstatten is a leading producer of clay roofing tiles including accessory components that operates in Central and Eastern Europe. The company expanded to Central and Eastern Europe in 1992 and now has 28 locations in 11 countries. In fiscal 2012, the group reported sales revenues of EUR 167 million.

Wienerberger was founded in 1819, and now has a total of 214 plants in 30 countries. It is the world’s largest producer of bricks, Europe’s leading producer of clay roof tiles, and, according to Fellner Wratzfeld, a “market leader in concrete pavers in CEE and in pipe systems in Europe.” In 2013, the company’s 13,800 employees generated sales revenues of more than EUR 2,6 billion. 

Fellner led the firm’s team on the deal along with Partner Florian Kranebitter.

LAWIN has advised MP Bank on the sale of the MP Pension Funds Baltic pension fund management company to the INVL Fondai company managed by AB Invalda LT.

The INVL Fondai company, which is owned and managed by AB Invalda LT, was informed on Tuesday by the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania that there were no objections to the acquisition and acquired 100% of the shares of the specialized pension fund management company MP Pension Funds Baltic for EUR 3.3 million (LTL 11.3 million). 

UAB MP Pension Funds Baltic is an Icelandic capital specialized pension fund management company providing solutions for pension accumulation and long-term saving for individuals and companies. The subsidiary of Icelandic bank MP Bank commenced operations in Lithuania in 2007. It has branches  in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda.

Kochanski Zieba Rapala & Partners has been providing advice to the Institute for Analysis and Rating (Instytut Analiz i Ratingu) since its establishment by the Warsaw Stock Exchange in June of this year with respect to all aspects of its activity.

According to KZRP, the purpose of the IA&R is to bridge the gap in the rating offers on the local market in the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises. IA&R’s activity is supposed to support the development of the debt market, especially debt instruments issued by mid-sized private companies.

KZRP’s work for IA&R has been handled by Partner Rafal Zieba and Partner Szymon Galkowski.

Teva Pharmaceuticals has hired Gabor Antal as Associate General Counsel, Europe. 

   

Gabor Antal, Associate General Counsel, Europe at Teva Pharmaceuticals

Based in Hungary, Gabor was originally seconded from Kinstellar to act as the interim General Counsel for Hungary in May. Effective October 1, he resigned from his role with Kinstellar and moves to a European role within Teva. He previously worked for a little over 9 years for Linklaters and its legacy firm Kinstellar as a Managing Associate, focusing on compliance, risk, and sensitive investigations as well as tax and restructuring and insolvency. Before that, he also worked for EY. Teva Pharmaceuticals is expected to announce its new permanent General Counsel for Hungary soon.

Teva Pharmaceuticals’ previous General Counsel for Hungary was Eszter Torok, who left the company after 10 years in April 2014. Prior to that, she worked as an associate with CMS in its Budapest office for 7 years and a half. (Editorial Note: The original piece said she left in May, 2014)

Drakopoulos has advised AIM-listed SPDI on a EUR 15 million acquisition of an income-producing logistics park in Greece and a EUR 6 million acquisition of an office building in Romania.

The logistics park — 17,756 leasable square meters, including warehouse space as well as an alternative energy production facility — is located in the West Attica Industrial Area, outside of Athens. It was acquired from G.E. DIMITRIOU, a Greek company listed in Athens Stock Exchange. The acquisition is SPDI’s first investment in Greece, in line with the company’s strategy to focus on the logistics sector and goal of becoming a leading regional property company in South Eastern Europe. It offers secure high-quality tenants and an income-producing photovoltaic park which adds to the net operating income. Advising on the deal that closed on August 7 were Senior Partner Panagiotis Drakopoulos and Senior Associate Georgia Konstantinidou.

In Romania SPDI acquired the EOS Business Park in Bucharest, a fully-let income producing office building which houses the Romanian headquarters of Danone, the French multinational food company. The EOS Business Park consists of 3,386 leasable square meters of office space, as well as 90 parking spaces. It is fully let to Danone Romania until 2026. The sellers in the deal that closed on August 28 were Tilpa Investments and Shortway RE BV. Partner Laurentiu Gorun, together with Oana Stancu advised SPDI on the deal. 

Grischenko & Partners has announced that it and King & Spalding represented Ukraine in a UNCITRAL arbitration against Tatneft, represented by Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton.

Grischenko & Partners reports that the July 29, 2014 unanimous decision by the three-person UNCITRAL panel required its client — Ukraine — to pay USD 112 million plus compensation for its breaches of the Russia-Ukraine bi-lateral investment treaty — but also notes that “the awarded amount provides less than 5% of the originally claimed compensation of USD 2.4 billion.” According to Grischenko & Partners, “it has been reported that Ukraine has filed an application to set aside the award to the court of appeal of Paris.”

The Cleary Gottlieb team representing Tatneft — a Russian oil and gas company headquartered in the Republic of Tatarstan — was composed of Partners Jonathan Blackman and Claudia Annacker, while Ukraine’s defense was led by Partners Eric Schwartz and James Castello of King & Spalding and Founding Partner Dmitry Grischenko and Partner Sergiy Voitovich of Grischenko & Partners.

KPD Consulting has supported SB Sberbank of Russia in is acquisition of an office building in the central business district of Kiev.

In the process, KPD Consulting conducted the necessary due diligence (review of construction permits, construction contracts, land titles), structured the transaction, prepared the transaction documents, and assisted in closing of the deal.

SB Sberbank of Russia is a 100% subsidiary of JSC Sberbank of Russia – the largest bank in Russia and the CIS. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, SB Sberbank of Russia one of the ten largest banks in the country in terms of assets. 

KPD Consulting Partner Vladyslav Kysil led the firm’s team on the deal.

Arzinger has acted as Ukrainian counsel to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in connection with a EUR 20 million equity investment to finance the expansion plans of the Soufflet Group, which plans to use the funds to extend its network of grain storage and seed production facilities in Ukraine, Poland and Romania.

It will consolidate all its existing and future silo and seed plant business in those countries in a new company called International Grains Silos, in which the EBRD will take a stake of no more than 35 per cent.

The France-based Soufflet Group is one of the leading private operators in the grain chain both in Europe and worldwide. Its strategy in the EBRD region is to develop an integrated supply chain, involving the collection of agricultural commodities from farmers, primary processing at silos and production facilities and also sales on the export markets or to ultimate users.

Arzinger’s team working on the project is led by Partner Oleksander Plotnikov, the Head of the firm’s Banking and Finance Practice.