In a follow-up to a story reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 23, Baker & McKenzie announced that it advised the Alfa group on its EUR 202.5 million acquisition of the Ukrainian assets of the Bank of Cyprus, including its Ukrainian subsidiary (PJSC Bank of Cyprus), its Ukrainian loan portfolio, and certain loans of the former Laiki Bank (Cyprus).
Alfa Bank is a Ukrainian universal commercial bank headquartered in Kiev. According to the official National Bank of Ukraine statistics, as of January 1, 2014, the Bank of Cyprus was the 67th largest bank in Ukraine in terms of total assets among the 180 commercial banks registered in the country. The bank had 42 branches, which provided services to retail and corporate customers, with 71 percent of the loan portfolio consisting of corporate customers.
Baker & McKenzie Partner Olyana Gordiyenko was pleased with the deal: "We are proud to be part of the client's biggest acquisition in Ukraine so far and we are glad that the deal has been a good bargain for the client. The complex nature of this acquisition demanded sophisticated structuring with differing documentation and process required for different parts of the transaction."
The Baker & McKenzie team also included Zoryana Matviychuk and other aAssociates from the Kiev office, Partners James Richards and Simon Morgan from Moscow, and Senior Associate Ron Kirschner in London.