#11 November 2017

In focus – Mergers & Acquisitions

Interest towards Ukraine as a potential investment target is still high. The number of business forums and venues is spilling over. And those overseas investors usually monitor the situation, follow updates of legislative progress and continue to figure out their risks.

Expert Opinion

Acquisition of Ukrainian Companies by Non-Residents

Valery Fedichin

A non-resident would typically seek to acquire a Ukrainian company where he wants to establish a presence in Ukraine or make an investment. Many investments or other asset acquisitions involve the purchase of a Ukrainian company either as a productive unit or a vehicle for holding assets.

In Re

Corporate Squeeze-Out: New Opportunities vs. New Challenges

Vasyl Yurmanovych, Yulia Nikolaychuk

On 4 June 2017 the Law of Ukraine On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine regarding Improvement of Corporate Governance in Joint Stock Companies came into force. This Law has introduced the squeeze-out and sell-out mechanisms for joint stock companies in Ukraine along with the concept of the escrow account, which is a significant progress in Ukrainian corporate law.

Tax Considerations in M&A Transactions

Pavlo Shovak

The Ukrainian economy finds itself far from a stage of growth and has not recovered from the structural economic downturn. As a result, the local M&A market has no signs of visible growth, although investors occasionally witness small improvements. Nevertheless, the World Bank is forecasting that Ukraine will enjoy economic growth in 2018, which is expected to foster the local M&A market among foreign institutional investors.

Certain Aspects as to Entering into Acquisition Transactions

Andrii Slobodeniuk

In general terms, entering into acquisition agreements may imply a lot of pitfalls. At the same time, most of the obstacles can be prevented at the preliminary stage through thorough analysis of the legal framework and careful negotiation. In this regard, in the next few paragrpahs I will elaborate on the regulatory environment and the possible hardships that may occur during conclusion of acquisition transactions and that may and should be foreseen beforehand.

News

Deals

AEQUO advised Dragon Capital Investments

Dentons — legal counsel to VTB Bank

Ukraine’s USD 3 billion sovereign bond issue and tender offer

Asters advised EBRD

Cases

Litigation between Siemens and Russia over Crimean turbines continues

Constitutional Court of Spain declared referendum on independence illegal

Assets of Viktor Yanukovych and son frozen legally

Fuel delivery contract between PJSC Ukrzaliznytsya and Wog Aero Jet LLC overturned

Court partially blocked latest version of Trump’s executive order on immigration

Draft

Exemption from taxes of owners of electric vehicles proposed

Simplification of tax invoices automatic registration mechanism

Legal regulation of crypto-currency status proposed

Improvement to procedure for considering citizens electronic appeals put forward

Law digest

StateGeoCadastre started working on Blockchain

New EU trade preferences for Ukraine

Law on cybersecurity adopted

Electronic trust services

NBU specified investment requirements

Biznews

Energy

Ministry of Energy approved Energoatom investments

EC proposes to ban Russian Federation from owning Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline

Banking & Finance

Raiffeisen Bank Aval provided EUR 10 million facility for building 3 biogas plants

Transportation

Lufthansa acquires most of Air Berlin divisions

Technologies

Naftogaz to buy software for anti-hacking protection

Crypto-currencies

Bitcoin divided once again

Lawyers News

New Book by Wolters Kluwer: The Law and Practice of International Arbitration in the CIS Region

 

UBA News

UBA VI Judicial Forum

The VI Judicial Forum, as organized by the Ukrainian Bar Association, brought together more than 300 participants on 28-29 September. Over the course of two days participants received an excellent opportunity to discuss the state of judicial reform, advantages of legal education of the 21st century, new procedural institutions as well as the future of trials with special cases from local and international trial practice.

Chamber News

Business in Ukraine: Legally Speaking

Meeting with Serhiy Shklyar, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine for Enforcement Service

On 21 September the Chamber held a meeting with Serhiy Shklyar, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine on Executive Service and representatives of the Department on State Executive Service.

Cover Story

Significant Advantage

Various Ukrainian governments have for many years demonstrated their willingness to establish a favorable investment climate in this country. Despite the setting up of investment promotion agencies and the adoption of numerous laws, the behavior of investors turns ever more in the direction of other countries. This is happening despite high rates of profitability in Ukraine compared to other jurisdictions. Pure figures no longer work as a significant advantage for our jurisdiction. We asked Maksym Lavrynovych, founding partner of Lavrynovych & Partners, who splits his time between Kiev and Vienna, to explain why it is worth going to Europe and what is the primary motivation of Ukrainian business wishing to invest overseas.

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Looking for an Attorney?

Taras Kopii

At some point in life, everyone faces a situation when we need a qualified legal assistance. In such cases, we either have a minor bureaucratic issue or have a big problem. Anyway, the necessity to seek for legal services is always accompanied with stress, discomfort and uncertainty.

Hot Issue

Three Waves of Investor-State Claims against Ukraine

Dr. Sergei Voitovich

Almost two decades ago Ukraine began its practice of investor-state arbitration as a respondent state. From 1998 Ukraine has been a party to 18 concluded investor-state cases, including 11 ICSID cases.

Out of these 18 concluded cases there have been three, so far, equal groups — 6 wins by Ukraine, 6 settled/discontinued cases and 6 cases in which Ukraine was found responsible for breach of its obligations under international treaties.

Global Legal Update

Arbitrability of Corporate Disputes in Ukraine

Leonid Shmatenko, Dr. Svitlana Bevz

While corporate disputes follow the trend of being arbitrated instead of being litigated, in most Eastern European states, corporate disputes are either non-arbitrable or their arbitrability remains disputed. In Ukraine, both the legal basis is insufficient and current case law is flawed. The problem of arbitrability of corporate disputes as such is based on the interpretation of Article 12 of the Ukrainian Code of Economic Procedure (EPC) and the question of when a corporate dispute actually exists.1 The following article addresses these problems.

Biz Lunch

More Than Just Business

During his first visit to Ukraine, Paul Rawlinson, Global Chair of Baker McKenzie, told UJBL readers in a special interview of his vision of the balance between local independence and a global strategy, partnership policy and innovation, as well as the global challenges facing the legal marketplace during celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of Baker McKenzie-Kyiv.

Venue

Australian Tech Spirit

The IBA Annual Conference takes place every year in a different part of the world. Sydney, Australia was the one-week venue on 8-13 October for the first time. The remote continent appeared to be very mature and technologically advanced, while the Australian legal services market is highly competitive and saturated by major international powerhouses. The Sydney location determined a lot of interest in the Asia-Pacific region, and reshaped traditional professional discussions throughout somewhat different angles.

Crux

Legal Digest

The UJBL editorial team has monitored recent changes in legislation as well as new drafts this month. The most significant drafts our team went through include the Draft on Amendments to the Economic, Civil Proceedings and the Code of Administrative Proceedings, joining the Statute of the International Renewable Energy Agency, draft on Cooperation with the International Criminal Court, drafts regarding circulation of crypto-currencies in Ukraine and on the insurance system. Our team also inquired about the decision of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) on Regulation of Dutch auctions and the letter-orientation on preventing the violation of the rights of business entities signed by the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine.

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