CMS has advised CWP Europe on the acquisition of a 73-megawatt wind project under development in the Kherson region.

Avellum has advised PJSC MHP on the acquisition of MHP Food UK Limited, formerly known as Braintree Meats Limited.

CMS has advised mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine and parent company Neqsol Holding on the acquisition of Vega Telecom from the SCM Group.

On June 14, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that the former DLA Piper office in Ukraine had merged with Kinstellar. We spoke with Co-Managing Partners Olena Kuchynska, Margarita Karpenko, and Senior Counsel Daniel Bilak – the Management Committee of the combined team – to learn more about the merger and their plans going forward.

Let me start with a provocative statement: it is really easy and safe to do business in Ukraine today. As discussed in the article below, this is not a naive view of a Ukrainian lawyer but pure facts and statistics. Moreover, if you compare Ukraine with its neighbors, the contrast is startling: information transparency of companies coupled with super-fast registration procedures and special regime for IT companies are astonishing.

In 2020, Ukraine’s government awarded the first two concessions in the history of Ukraine – 35-year concessions of the assets of Kherson and Olvia, two significant ports on the Black Sea. Building on this success, in October 2020, the government made a media splash by releasing a roadmap for further public private partnership (PPP) projects and held various promotion events since then.

Sayenko Kharenko has advised joint lead managers J.P. Morgan and Dragon Capital on the USD 300 million eurobond issuance by Ukrainian Railways, the exclusive state-owned provider of rail transportation services in Ukraine.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered substantial social changes and a seemingly never-ending rollercoaster of legislative amendments and re-adoptions. Both social and legislative changes occurred in the Employment Sector, inevitably including the sphere of Personal Data Protection (PDP).

While mineral extraction in Ukraine has a high potential for development and attracting investment, it always entails ecological risks which must be properly mitigated. Recently adopted laws, as well as legislation currently considered by Parliament, are aimed at balancing economic development and environmental protection.

According to Arzinger Managing Partner Timur Bondaryev, competition investigations, investment disputes, and white-collar crime matters have been keeping his team particularly busy these last few months. CEE Legal Matters sat down with him to learn more about the driving forces behind these areas in Ukraine.

Like the rest of the world, the Ukrainian M&A market was dramatically hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Indeed, the number of M&A deals decreased in 2020, for the first time since 2014. However, the fourth quarter of 2020 saw a positive surge in the number of M&A deals, and although most of those deals started before the pandemic, the fact that they still happened sent a clear signal: investors are ready to buy in the new reality.

The Ukrainian legal services market has been buzzing with work in the first half of 2021. CEE Legal Matters hosted a round table conversation in which Partners at Asters, Avellum, Integrites, Kinstellar, and Sayenko Kharenko discussed the driving forces behind the workload and their outlook for the months to come.

The pandemic has been devastating for Ukraine, with underfunded health services struggling to contain COVID-19 contagion. Scenes of hospitals overwhelmed with patients and lacking staff, equipment, and medication will haunt us even as cases drop and vaccinations rise. It has been a traumatic time for our team at the Kyiv Dentons office. We have been working hard to support and guide each other towards the glimmer of light at the end of this long and, at times scary, tunnel.

Ilyashev & Partners has advised Ukraine's Zavalivskiy Graphite Group on its sale of a 70% stake to Australia's Volt Resources Limited. Avellum advised the buyer on the transaction.

While the Dealer’s Choice Conference in London could not be organized this year in a safe manner due to current events, on July 20, 2021, CEE Legal Matters sat down with several of the event’s sponsors to take a closer look at the Deals of the Year award winners this year.

CMS has advised the Export-Import Bank of Korea on a USD 36 million financing extension deal with Grain Terminal Holdings.

On 1 June 2021, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted at its first reading the draft law improving Ukrainian mining laws (No. 4187). The draft law is aimed at, among other things, attracting and simplifying investments by improving the current laws.

On May 17, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Asters had advised Elementum Energy Ltd. on the acquisition of a majority stake in the Dnistrovska wind park in the Odessa region of Ukraine. CEE In-House Matters spoke with Victoria Pysmenna, Head of Legal at Elementum Energy to learn more about the deal.