Redcliffe Partners has advised the EBRD on a USD 27 million short-term secured loan to Nibulon LLC, a Ukrainian agricultural company.

Investigations Into Price Hikes and Other Responses by the Ukrainian Competition Authority to the COVID-19 Crisis

Ukrainian renewable energy lawyer Svitlana Teush takes a look at the law which will define the cuts to be applied in Ukraine after extensive negotiation between government and the clean energy industry.

Redcliffe Partners has helped Saudi Basic Industries Corporation obtain merger clearance from the Ukrainian competition authority for the USD 69.1 billion sale of 70% of its shares by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia – the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – to the Saudi Arabian Oil Company. 

Redcliffe Partners has advised the EBRD on an up to EUR 25 million term loan to be provided to Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise for working capital needs.

Investigations Into Price Hikes and Other Responses by the Ukrainian Competition Authority to the COVID-19 Crisis

The Ukrainian government’s conference rooms have been stuffier than usual lately, as policymakers and renewable energy industry representatives attempted to thrash out a compromise to reduce the financial burden left on the administration by a feed-in tariff incentive regime which drove almost 2 GW of generation capacity. The resulting retroactive cuts to payments, outlined below by Ukraine-based lawyer Svitlana Teush, have at least had input from both sides.

Before being elected President of Ukraine last May, Volodymyr Zelensky had virtually no experience in public office. Despite his inexperience – or perhaps because of it – over 73% of the electorate concluded that the comedian and entertainer was the right man to replace Petro Poroshenko, the previous President, and now Zelensky finds himself, at 41, leading an entire nation.

Investigations Into Price Hikes and Other Responses by the Ukrainian Competition Authority to the COVID-19 Crisis

The Ukrainian Competition Authority investigates price hikes for face masks, health protection products and long-life foodstuffs amidst COVID-19 outbreak. Airline tickets, telecoms and misleading claims about fake coronavirus treatments are also in focus.

Redcliffe Partners and Clifford Chance Contribute to Global Pro Bono Project on Human Right to Healthy Environment

Redcliffe Partners, Clifford Chance, and over 100 law firms around the world have participated in a global mapping survey for the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment related to the existence (or non-existence) of a fundamental human right to a healthy environment.

Draft Law 1210 – Significant Changes to Taxation of Cross-Border Operations

On 16 January 2020, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted law No 1210 "On amendments to the Tax Code related to the improvement of tax administration and elimination of technical and logical inconsistencies in the tax legislation" (the "Law").

Redcliffe Partners has advised the EBRD on a risk participation agreement with Piraeus Bank Ukraine with a total value of EUR 10 million.

Redcliffe Partners has helped GE Capital, the financial services division of General Electric, obtain merger clearance from Ukraine's competition authority in connection with the sale of the PK AirFinance aviation lending business to Apollo Global Management and Athene Holding Ltd.

Redcliffe Partners has advised the EBRD on Ukrainian aspects of its loan of an additional two million euros to Aquanova Development LLC for the construction, equipment, and placing in operation of a 3.5 MWp solar PV plant in the Zakarpattya Region of Ukraine. Clifford Chance Warsaw and Linklaters Milan advised the EBRD on English and Italian law, respectively.

Anastasia Usova, Redcliffe Partners’ Head of Antitrust, has been promoted to Partner at the firm.

Ukraine is undergoing a period of structural reform throughout its financial and banking sectors that is unprecedented in its scale and complexity. The reform of the currency control regime culminated in the full cancellation of a 26-year old system and the introduction of a legislative road map for the gradual implementation of the free movement of capital. The reform gave a critical impetus to the development of the securities market and foreign investments, with Clearstream opening a direct securities account at the National Bank of Ukraine (the NBU) to provide easier access to hryvnia-denominated sovereign bonds. Ukrainian banks were authorized to grant short-term loans in local currency to foreign investors so they could invest in the bonds and hedge the FX risks of such transactions. The introduction of the IBAN standard is another example of the ongoing process of harmonizing the Ukrainian payment landscape.

“It’s not that laws don’t exist – it’s the faith in the law, courts, and lawyers that is missing,” says Zoryana Sozanska-Matviychuk, Partner at Redcliffe Partners in Kiev. “What I hope we see from the new government is not any particular legislation; it is much better implementation. This will hopefully lead to more trust in the country’s legal system as a whole.”

As the country entered the 21st century, Ukraine’s Soviet-era judicial system was widely condemned as corrupt, incompetent, and inefficient. Committed to rectifying the situation, in 2015 the Ukrainian government introduced plans to reform the entire system. That transformation, which was the focus of an August 2017 CEE Legal Matters Round Table, continues today. We reached out to several of the Ukrainian dispute resolution specialists we spoke to several years ago for an update.

In February 2019 CEE Legal Matters reported that Integrites and K&L Gates had advised Norwegian utility-scale wind power developer NBT and Paris-based renewable energy independent power producer Total Eren on their entrance into a framework agreement with a syndicate of foreign lenders, including the EBRD and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation, for the construction of the Syvash wind farm – one of the largest in Europe. Redcliffe Partners and Clifford Chance advised the lenders and J.P. Morgan Securities Plc as debt coordinator.

Maria Koval, former Senior Associate at Ilyashev & Partners, has joined Redcliffe Partners as Counsel and Head of IP.