Corporate / M&A

“One of the strongest corporate and M&A teams on the market”

The Legal 500 2020

WHAT WE DO/ SPECIFIC AREAS OF FOCUS

Our Corporate / M&A team is one of the most resourceful and diversified in Russia: more than 20 lawyers qualified under Russian, English and US law (State of New York) with substantial experience of mid-to-large-scale cross-border and other complex transactions.

Chambers Global 2021
Highly regarded practice active on high-value domestic transactions across a broad range of industries.

Russia M&A Legal Adviser of the Year (shortlisted) – Mergermarket Europe M&A Award 2019.

Top-ranked in Corporate/M&A – The Legal 500 2021 (Tier 2), Chambers Global and Chambers Europe 2021 (High end category - Band 3), IFLR 1000 2020 (Tier 2).

Partners Andrey Goltsblat, Anton Sitnikov, Ekaterina Dedova, Matvey Kaploukhiy and Anton Panchenkov are recognised in The Best Lawyers in Russia© 2021 in the fields of Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Insolvency and Reorganisation Law, Information Technology Law, Competition / Antitrust Law, Banking and Finance Law.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner is routinely rank in Top 20 for number of U.S. M&A deals (Thomson Reuters).

Tier 2 in Commercial, corporate and M&A, according to The Legal 500 EMEA 2020
A sizeable practice, which acts for sellers and buyers on domestic and international corporate and M&A transactions.

One of the strongest corporate and M&A teams on the market; partners’ close participation throughout a client’s project is a plus” .

Our Corporate / M&A team is one of the most resourceful and diversified in Russia and has substantial experience of mid-to-large-scale cross-border and other complex transactions. The team is well-positioned in terms of expertise and resources to provide any type of corporate/ M&A and other transactional and general corporate services supported – when the scope so requires – by leading practitioners in all relevant areas of practice, each being long-established and top-ranked in their respective areas. This is a massive advantage over competitors and a completely different offering.

IFLR 2020
Excellent team of professionals, which is available around-the-clock, and is always ready to find solutions and respond to client's requests.

For more details about our international experience in Corporate/ M&A, please click here.

Andrey Goltsblat

Country Managing Partner (Russia), PhD (Law), Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (Russia) LLP (formerly Goltsblat BLP in Russia), Senior Partner, Private Client, M&A, Investment Projects

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Anton Sitnikov

Partner, Head of Corporate / M&A

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Ekaterina Dedova

Partner, PhD, Corporate/ M&A, Head of TMT

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Matvey Kaploukhiy

Partner, Corporate / M&A

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Anton Panchenkov

Partner, Corporate / M&A, Head of Moscow Israeli Desk

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Meet the team

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Experience

Corporate / M&A

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

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

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

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

Advised PJSC RusHydro on sale of its 90% shareholding in JSC International Energy Corporation (MEK), owner of the Sevan–Hrazdan HPP Cascade in Armenia. The deal was structured under an SPA between JSC Hydroinvest, a RusHydro subsidiary (the seller), and OJSC Hrazdan Power Company (Tashir Group) (the buyer).

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

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.

Advised Orion LLC, an ESN Group company, on the sale of 100% of the shares in the fiscal data operator 1 OFD (ESK JSC) to VTB Group.

Advised Vezet Group on sale of its software and call centres to Yandex.Taxi.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Joom SIA on buying a 10% stake in on-line shopping platform iGooods, the retail food delivery service with the biggest turnover.

Advised Kuzbassenergo, a subsidiary of Siberian Generating Company, a leading operator on the Russian electricity and thermal energy market, on acquiring the Reftinskaya GRES coal-fired power plant from Enel Russia.

Corporate / M&A

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).

Corporate / M&A

Advised on a RUB 15.5 bn (approx. USD 240 m) investment sale of a controlling stake in Obolenskoe Pharm, a leading Russian pharmaceutical company. The stake was acquired by Sistema (LSE: SSA, MOEX: AFKS), a large Russian diversified holding company, jointly with VTB Bank from Alvansa Ltd, a holding company controlled by Gazprombank and UFG Private Equity. We represented the sellers in the main sale of the business and acted for OBL Pharm’s management team in its negotiations with investors with respect to the shareholder deal.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Da Vinci Capital, a leading emerging markets private equity firm, on investing in DataArt, a leading global technology consultancy that designs and develops unique software solutions for supporting company growth momentum in key industries.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Fasten (owner of Saturn and RedTaxi brands), a major player on the taxi aggregator market in Russia, on its merger with RuTaxi (Vezyet / Везет and Leader / Лидер brands).

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

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.

Corporate / M&A

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.

Advised AFG National, a leader on the Russian agriculture produce market, on raising up to RUB 9 bn from the Russian Direct Investments Fund and a number of Middle East funds.

Advised AFG National on selling a 35% share in Yuzhnie Zemli LLC to Volga Group Agro, a company consolidating agricultural projects of Volga Group. Yuzhnie Zemli focuses on farming of high-quality apples by a super intensive technology and is one of the fastest growing projects in the industry.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Open Mobile Platform-DC and RUSINTECH on sale of 75% in Open Mobile Platform and Votron to Rostelecom, which through this transaction gains control over the developer of Sailfish OS and Sailfish Mobile OS RUS.

Corporate / M&A

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 PJSC MTS, the leading telecommunications provider in Russia, on its acquisition of a controlling stake (50.82%) in the Russian retail software developer Oblachny Retail LLC operating under the LiteBox brand.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Globus, a German hypermarket chain, on its expansion on the Russian market, specifically on acquiring a land plot and properties in north-east Moscow for a new hypermarket.

Advised Siberian Generating Company, SUEK Group (Siberian Coal Energy Company, Russia’s biggest coal producer), on acquisition of a 78% stake in Sibeco, one of the biggest heat and electricity generation companies in Siberia.

Corporate / M&A

Advised the shareholder of Tyumensky Fanerny Zavod (Tyumen Plywood Plant), the top plywood producer in Russia’s Western Siberia, on a sale of its 100% stake to SVEZA, a global leader on the birch plywood market.

Corporate / M&A

Advised CITIC Telecom International on acquisition of the telecommunication business of Linx Telecommunications, including Linx's 470 km optic fiber network in the Baltic Sea, and its network operations centers (NOCs) in Moscow and Tallinn, Estonia.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Ferronordic Machines AB, an authorised dealer of Volvo Construction Equipment, Terex Trucks, Dressta, Mecalac and Rottne in Russia, on the offering and listing of its ordinary shares on Nasdaq Stockholm.

Corporate / M&A

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.

Advised the top-management of Exactpro Systems on a management buyout. The transaction saw our clients buy the company back from the London Stock Exchange Group, to which they had previously sold the business.

Corporate / M&A

Acted for Raven Russia Limited, a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange, on the acquisition of a portfolio of three high quality income producing properties in St Petersburg (a warehouse and two office buildings) from EPI Russia I Ky, a fund managed by Northern Horizon Capital.

Corporate / M&A

Advised Sun Pharma Global FZE, a group company of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, on prospective brand acquisition from a Russian competitor. Our mandate included comprehensive due diligence of the assets and related business (with particular focus on regulatory, contractual and IP), advice on structuring of the transaction, documenting and hands-on negotiating the deal.

Corporate / M&A

Advised TechnoNicol on acquisition of 100% of the shares in a production facility belonging to the IZOVOL Group, offering insulation solutions for industrial and civil construction.