Kyiv
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.
With a presence in Ukraine since 1992, our lawyers have amassed an impressive level of market knowledge and experience allowing us to advise a full range of businesses, from major international companies to Ukrainian and Russian entities, active in Ukraine and throughout Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Our integrated CEE practice has steadily grown to encompass six offices in the region. As part of that practice and with support from our offices in key European and US financial centers, our Kyiv office provides international legal advice on banking and financial services, corporate law and corporate finance, securities, private equity and venture capital, real estate, communications, intellectual property, agribusiness, project finance, energy, environmental law and commercial services.
Our Kyiv corporate practitioners, who have been recognized by publications such as Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers, handle a full array of representations, from international transactions to mergers and acquisitions, from joint ventures to strategic planning. We advise international banks, manufacturing companies, mining companies, energy groups (including in the power and oil and gas sectors), communications companies, transportation companies, grain producers and traders, and many others in their corporate activities in Ukraine.
Squire Sanders piloted the first two large enterprise privatizations in Ukraine as counsel to the International Finance Corporation and helped Ukraine develop a national mass privatization program in which thousands of enterprises were privatized. We also advised the State Property Fund on the privatization of Ukraine’s national telephone company, with 30 regional branches and 373 separate structural subdivisions.
Our communications practice reaches well beyond privatizations to cover the establishment of regulatory regimes, structuring mergers and acquisitions and negotiating foreign investments in Ukrainian telecom companies. Legal 500 EMEA rates Squire Sanders among the region’s top legal advisers to the industry.
No less prominent is our energy practice in Ukraine, part of our internationally recognized energy group and based in one of the world’s hotspots for development and marketing. We represent several of the largest oil, gas and power companies in their activities in Ukraine including several global energy companies in their acquisitions of privatizing electricity distribution companies. We are also active in the mining and oil and gas exploration sectors.
We represent both lenders and borrowers in Ukraine in the structuring, documentation and negotiation of a full range of loan and credit transactions including secured and unsecured term and bridge loan facilities, as well as nonrecourse, limited recourse and full recourse project financings. Our lawyers have extensive experience in creating security structures in Ukraine including enterprise mortgages, pledges of movable and immovable property, stock and asset charges, inventory, equipment and accounts receivable pledges, and assignments of supply, insurance and other contracts.
In the real estate sector, our lawyers represent buyers, sellers, developers, retailers, landlords and tenants in various projects, from negotiating construction contracts for one of the world’s largest beverage companies to helping a global hotel chain in creating management and operations agreements with developers in Kyiv. We have conducted due diligence, advised on project structure, reviewed title documents, negotiated lease agreements and issued opinions related to real estate transactions in Ukraine.