Deals

Asters — Ukrainian law counsel to IFC

Asters acted as a Ukrainian law counsel to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in connection with a USD 30 million loan to Astarta, a leading agricultural producer in Ukraine.

IFC financial support will fund the company’s two-year investment program, which is aimed at increasing the resource efficiency of its processing plants and the productivity of its farming operations. The funds will go towards modernizing the company’s sugar plants, leading to savings of gas, electricity and water resources.

Asters' banking and finance team advising on the project consisted of partner Iryna Pokanay, counsel Gabriel Aslanian and associate Inna Bondarenko.

 

AEQUO acted as a counsel to EBRD

AEQUO has advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Ukrainian law matters associated with a transaction on the acquisition of its borrower — Ergopack LLC by Sarantis Group.

AEQUO's advisory role included legal assistance in drafting and negotiating transaction documents from the Ukrainian legal perspective, including the sale of shares and the purchase agreement in the acquisition target and the assignment agreement of the EBRD loan. AEQUO's lawyers assisted with collection and control over fulfillment of conditions precedent to the acquisition, the release of respective security and the completion procedures.  The AEQUO project team included senior associate Bohdan Dmukhovskyy and associate Valeriy Savva, who worked under the supervision of Yulia Kyrpa, partner and head of Banking & Finance Practice.

 

DLA Piper advised Haas Group

DLA Piper advised Haas Group on the sale of their global group headquartered in Austria to Swiss company Bühler AG.

The advisory services DLA Piper provided to Haas Group in the course of the planning and implementation of the transaction showcased the global firm's ability to support clients as a truly full-service business law firm and spanned from corporate law and structuring, tax, employment and IPT law to competition law and obtaining required merger clearances, amongst others in Austria, Germany and Ukraine. 

Christoph Mager, partner and corporate practice head at DLA Piper's office in Vienna, Austria, led the international advisory team. TheUkrainian team was led by partner and head of competition Galyna Zagorodniuk, with core support from associate Andrii Zhupanyn. 

 

AEQUO advised KfW

AEQUO has acted as Ukrainian law counsel to KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) — a German government-owned development bank — in connection with the extension to OTP Leasing LLC of a loan to the tune of USD 17 million. The loan will be utilized for financing leasing transactions with private Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises in agribusiness. AEQUO's lawyers assisted KfW in elaborating the structure of the transaction, preparing and negotiating the transaction documentation and issued the legal opinion in favor of KfW to confirm the validity and enforceability of the transaction documents. The team comprised associate Glib Bukharin and senior associate Bohdan Dmukhovskyy, and was supervised by Yulia Kyrpa, partner.

 

DLA Piper represented aircraft lessor Pegasus Aviation VI

DLA Piper has advised US-based aircraft lessor Pegasus Aviation VI on the leasing of the Boeing 767-300 to the Ukrainian airline Azur Air Ukraine.

The firm provided complex analysis and implementation of the provisions of aircraft registration. The work undertaken required knowledge of local legislation and the detailed regulatory regime in line with international conventions. The team advised on currency control issues and their appropriate structuring with regard to the variety and complexity of leasing payments.

The DLA Piper team in Ukraine was led by Oleksandr Kurdydyk, partner and head of Finance, Projects and Restructuring, supported by Dmytro Pshenychniuk, senior associate, and Iurii Krasnoliudskyi, associate.

 

Vasil Kisil & Partners advised Mondelez International

Vasil Kisil & Partners advised on the buying out of minority shareholdings through the squeeze-out procedure, which succeeded in 1,975 shares of Mondelez Ukraine PrJSC being credited to the securities account of its controlling shareholder Kraft Foods Entity Holdings B.V.

To improve the effectiveness of governance Kraft Foods Entity Holdings B.V. decided to buy out shares (squeeze-out) of minority shareholders in Mondelez Ukraine PrJSC.

Vasil Kisil & Partners acted for the majority shareholder and provided full legal support throughout the squeeze-out procedure.
The project team included partner Alexander Borodkin and associate Taisiia Asadchykh.

 

Asters advised IPnet

Asters acted as a Ukrainian legal counsel to Industrial Media Network PrJSC (IPnet) in connection with the intragroup loan restructuring via a debt-to-equity swap, a generally recognized instrument of corporate finance.
The debt-to-equity conversion resulted in the transfer of
USD 3 million loan obligations owed to a foreign parent company into additional shares in IPnet.

Asters' advisory role included full legal support on all matters, including the analysis of possible conversion
methods, drafting necessary contractual documentation, carrying out an additional issue of shares, registration of shares issuance, prospectus for a share issue and a report on results of shares placement with the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, carrying out all procedures with the National Depository of Ukraine and the shareholder's depository institution, and advising on other matters of corporate, commercial and company law.

Asters' business law team advising on the project consisted of partner Vadym Samoilenko and senior associate Maryana Sayenko.

 

AVELLUM advised EBRD on senior secured loan to Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill

AVELLUM acted as the Ukrainian legal counsel to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in connection with a senior secured loan of up to EUR 10 million (with an option to increase the loan up to EUR 25 million) to PJSC Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill (KCPM).

The loan will be partially financed by the Global Environment Facility and will be used by KCPM to boost energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions (Project).

The Project will reduce KCMP’s annual CO2e emissions by up to 11,000 tonnes in overall terms.

The AVELLUM team was led by senior partner Glib Bondar, with support from counsel Maria Tsabal and associates Orest Franchuk and Anna Mykhalova.

 

EY Ukraine assisted Atlantic Agro Holding

EY Ukraine advised Atlantic Agro Holding ApS on financial matters in the course of its sale of a crop-farming and feed mill business in Ukraine. EY Ukraine acted as a sell-side advisor representing the interests of American and Danish selling shareholders in the deal. Ukrainian agriculture group ERIDON acted as the buyer.

EY Ukraine professionals were involved in providing transaction advisory services including value analysis, searching for the most competitive potential buyer, support during negotiations and signing of the agreement. 

This was the fourth deal in a row on sale of agricultural assets that the firm has closed in the period of July 2017 — July 2018, with combined value of assets sold coming to USD 97.5 million. 

Mykola Korol, associate director, Transaction Advisory Services, was the leader of the EY Ukraine consultants' team for the closed deal.

 

CMS advised EBRD

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang in Kiev has recently advised the EBRD on a EUR 13 million loan to the communal enterprise Mariupolske Tramvaino-Troleybusne Upravlinnya (MTTU). The EBRD’s investment will be spent on acquiring up to 72 low-floor trolleybuses for the city of Mariupol, spare parts and maintenance equipment and on upgrading the trolleybus depot and rebuilding the catenary overhead wire network. The CMS team was led by Simon Dayes, English qualified banking and finance partner, and senior associate Vyacheslav Ovechkin.