Advised PSA Group on obtaining Russian antitrust clearance for its merger with FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles).

Advising Gazprom Neft on launching JV with ZYFRA to develop oil and gas digital industrial platform and promoting new process solutions.

Advising Mistral Wine, a major food and alcohol producer and distributor, a part of the Mistral group, on its acquisition of 200 ha of vineyards and a winery with a designed output of 840,000 litres per year in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. The deal is the first big-ticket investment by the Group, one of the leading domestic alcohol importers, in its own wine estate in Russia.

Advising Gazpromneft-Snabzhenie LLC on launching JV to develop the first integrated platform for supply chain management in Russia.

Acting as a legal consultant in Russia for Kopy Goldfields AB (publ) in connection with its acquisition of 100% of the shares in Amur Gold Company Limited, a medium-sized gold producing company based in Russia, through a reverse takeover.

Advised Pangeo Capital on all aspects of setting up and operating Pangeo Radar, a Russian-Austrian joint venture between Pangeo Capital and Radarservices Smart IT Security to develop, localise and deploy IT security software for major corporations and public companies. The scope of work also included advice on matters related to governance and finance, licensing, international cross-licensing and localisation of software.

Advised KOPY Goldfields AB (publ), a Swedish gold exploration company, on sale of its subsidiary Taiga LLC, which holds several exploration and production licences in the Irkutsk Region.

Represented Sberbank in arbitrazh (commercial) courts over alleged violation of the laws on procurement of goods, works or services by certain types of legal entity. The laws were allegedly breached by competition-restricting requirements set for participants. We devised a successful representation strategy, convincing the appellate court that the decision given by the FAS of Russia was unlawful.

Supporting Verno, an international investment company, managing the PE fund Kazakhstan Infrastructure Fund C.V., in a project to develop and let around 25,000 sq m of warehouse premises in the first phase of a bigger plan to construct up to 100,000 sq m of Class A warehouses in Kazakhstan.

VKontakte filed a claim against our client Double Data to stop it collecting open information posted by users on the VKontakte network since, VKontakte claimed, such collection breached its rights to the database. Our position relied primarily on Double Data software operating like a search engine so no breach of the claimant’s rights was possible. We succeeded in having the IP Court overturn the appeal court’s ruling against our client and remand the case for reconsideration. The case has evolved as one of the most discussed disputes in recent years over use of Big Data and how search engines function.

Advised MasterCard Members Association on launching an innovative service on the Russian market: simultaneous cash-out with POS payment by bank card at shop tills.

Assisting GTLK Europe DAC with preparing a complex roadmap and advising on the legal and tax structures for establishing a leasing platform in Hong Kong for aircraft and ship leasing, in order to assess the benefits available to such platform under the concessionary aircraft leasing tax regime introduced in Hong Kong in 2017 for leasing aircraft and ships to different jurisdictions and implement the establishment of such platform.

Offcial consultant for NIKE on IP and advertising issues for FIFA World Cup 2018 held in Russia. Our team provided advice on a broad range of issues, including review of legal compliance by NIKE’s advertising campaigns, placement of outdoor advertising, use of offcial symbols of sports events and images of sportsmen, risks related to copyright and trade mark rights, trading restrictions and organisation of sports events.

Advising International Investment Bank (IIB), a multilateral development bank mainly operating in Eastern Europe and Asia, on RUB 3,6 and RUB 6 bn multi-asset secured facilities for financing and refinancing the acquisition of regional passenger jets Let L-410 Turbolet, Bell, Ansat and Mi-8 helicopters with medical modules and BELAZ coal mining trucks.

Advised Miratorg Agricultural Holding, one of the Russia’s largest agricultural producers, on its acquisition of 100% of shares in RAV Agro Orel and LB Orel, an agricultural arm of PPF Group allowing the client to materially boost its assets and production base.

Advised South/ TurkStream on construction of the Russian Sector of the South/TurkStream Offshore Pipeline project from Russia to Turkey: land acquisition, spatial planning, environmental, corporate, financing arrangements, constructions, permitting and regulatory, liaisons with government authorities, authorisations and licenses, etc.

Defended Wine Brandy Plant Alliance-1892 LLC, a major Russian cognac and whiskey producer, in a landmark tax dispute. We proved to the Supreme Court that the adjustment made to VAT deductions upon importation of goods into Russia had been illegal.

Providing comprehensive legal and tax advisory support to Rusklimat Group, the biggest Russian manufacturer and importer of climate control equipment, in relation to its programme for restructuring the Group’s business units and divisions. This programme is designed to optimise the distribution network structure and raise the Group’s attractiveness to investors.

Advised Da Vinci Capital on $55m subscription for “Gram” tokens during second round of ICO of the Telegram Group - one of the world’s most popular messenger apps. TON (Telegram Open Network) is the largest ICO in the history of cryptocurrencies and the most hyped ICO of 2018. TON Whitepaper states that 84 percent of blockchain-based projects have an active Telegram community, more than all other chat applications combined.

Represented Prosveshcheniye publishers in a trade mark litigation, the biggest court case in the history of Russia’s publishing industry, with the compensation totalling RUB 4 bn.

Advised SUEK (Siberian Coal Energy Company) on a coal mining joint venture.

Advised LG Electronics Rus on paying customs duties on certain types of imported domestic refrigerator at specific EEU customs tariff rates. In certain cases, the ad valorem equivalent of such rates could exceed the ad-valorem duty rate fixed as the bound tariff rate level in the Protocol on the Accession of the Russian Federation (to the WTO Agreement). By following our recommendations, the client recovered more than RUB 70 m from the government through the courts.

Advised Uralkali, one of the world’s largest potash producers, on its global review of employment arrangements. The comprehensive review covered a number of jurisdictions on most of the continents relevant to operations of the client.

Represented UFG Real Estate Russia and Orientir Development (former Logopark Development) in a sale transaction of the Sever-2 logistics park to Raven Russia.

Acting for PAO VimpelCom, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (Russia) LLP has triumphed in the first instance, appeal and cassation arbitrazh (commercial) courts in a dispute between mobile operators and the FAS of Russia over changes to B2B SMS service tariffs.

Represented Coral Energy, an oil-trading company registered in Singapore, in an arbitration over prepayment recovery against CJSC Kaspi-1, a petroleum supplier based in the Republic of Dagestan. The claim was filed with the International Commercial Arbitration Court under the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The sole arbitrator granted the Coral Energy’s debt recovery and damages claim in full, including full compensation for the claimant’s fees. The award was enforced by the Commercial Court of the Republic of Dagestan triggering bankruptcy proceedings against the supplier, during which Coral Energy was able to object to other creditors’ claims.

Advised Mubadala Investment Company, a consortium of investors with various interests, on an investment in MEL Science UK EdTech platform. This London-based company has raised USD 14 m in Series B funding from investors to support expansion of its subscription-based science education business.

Advised Sberbank Investments on acquiring 50% in Mayak and Prima building a five-star hotel and deluxe apartments at the Fairmont & Vesper residential complex and the premium-class Lucky Residential Quarter. Both projects are being developed by Vesper, which specialises in high-end residential property construction and has a corporate portfolio of 15 bespoke residences in Moscow and Europe.

Advised HeadHunter Group on acquiring the Zarplata.ru job classifieds platform from Hearst Shkulev (a joint venture of the US Hearst media conglomerate). Zarplata.ru is a major player on the Russian job classifieds market, holding leading positions in the Russian regions of the Urals and Siberia. This is the third and biggest acquisition by the Headhunter Group in the last few years.

Advising Algoritmika (a popular Russian education platform which specialises in coding education for children) and its founder on raising equity investment from Winter Capital and Russia-China Technology Investment Fund, as well as on sale of shares by some of the existing shareholders to Winter Capital.

Advising minority shareholders in Alium Group on (i) a shareholder deal with AFK Sistema, VTB Group and the Russia-China Investment Fund to create Binnopharm Group, one of Russia’s biggest pharmaceutical producers (consisting of Alium, Binnopharm and Sintez), and (ii) execution of a put option and sale of shares to a subsidiary of AFK Sistema (LSE: SSA, MOEX: AFKS).

Advised Teva on selling a pharmaceutical plant in Yaroslavl Industrial Park (Novosyolki) to R-Pharm Group (Russian high-tech pharmaceutical company, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Russia). The GMP-certified enterprise located on 19 hectares offers 13,000 sq.m. of production space. It manufactures medications for cardiological, neurological and endocrinological diseases. The terms of the sale transaction include a five-year agreement under which R-Pharm will act as Teva’s production partner in order to ensure continuous access for patients to Teva medicines. The sale of the plant is part of the company's global strategy to optimize production capacity.

Providing legal advice and support in relation to development and construction of a gas processing / methanol production plant (design capacity: 1.2 million cubic meters of methanol annually) in the Russian Far East, including support with execution of the first Investment Treaty with the Ministry for Economics to promote and protect Investments (IPPA), land use and infrastructure issues. etc. 

Advised on the biggest ever office lease on the Moscow commercial real estate market: drafting and negotiating the future property lease for the office space in the building located in the centre of Moscow to accommodate Tinkoff’s headquarters, including all its core subdivisions, such as Tinkoff Bank, Tinkoff Insurance, Tinkoff Mobile, Tinkoff Development Center, etc.

Advised Russia’s leading industrial park developer on one of the biggest warehouse market transactions - in connection with its sale of Sever-1 Logistics Park, a class A+ sophisticated warehousing facility, to PLT, a logistics platform set up by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Mubadala Investment Company and a number of Middle East investment funds.

Acted for IMC Montan, an international consulting group in the geological, mining and mineral processing sector, in a dispute over recovery of debt and penalty from Nornickel, under a consultancy agreement for preparation of a feasibility study on integrated development of a mine. The dispute centred on the quality of the reports and models developed by IMC Montan under the agreement. We won the case so all of the debt and also the penalty were recovered from the opponent. The court also dismissed in full the Nornickel counter-claims against our client for late performance penalty under the agreement.