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One Down, Four to Go: First of Five CEE Deal of the Year Contenders Eliminated from Contention

One Down, Four to Go: First of Five CEE Deal of the Year Contenders Eliminated from Contention

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With the removal of the first 2019 CEE Deal of the Year finalist from the shortlist, only four nominees remain.

As a reminder, each day this week CEE Legal Matters will be counting down towards Friday's revelation of the 2019 CEE Deal of the Year winner. The unlucky nominee this time is Severgroup’s Acquisition of TPG’s 34% Shareholding in Lenta and Subsequent Mandatory Tender Offer, which received the fewest votes of the five finalists.

That deal — which won the 2019 CEE Legal Matters Deal of the Year for Russia — involved the acquisition by Severgroup, which is held by Russian entrepreneur Alexey Mordashov, of TPG’s 34% shareholding in Lenta for USD 599 million and the EBRD’s 7.5% stake in Lenta for USD 130 million. The sale by TPG and the EBRD triggered a requirement for Severgroup to make a mandatory tender offer for all remaining shares in Lenta, as a result of which, a further 37% of Lenta shares were tendered by public shareholders and purchased for USD 640 million. According to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which submitted the deal for consideration, this was one of the largest public tender offers ever carried out for a Russian business, and took Severgroup to a 79% holding.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton represented TPG Capital and the Lenta Board of Directors on the deal, with Ogier acting as British Virgin Islands counsel to Lenta, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advising Severgroup, and Clifford Chance advising the EBRD.

With the elimination of that deal, only four remain:

On Wednesday, one more nominee will be asked to leave the island, and CEE Legal Matters will reveal which three of the four finalists remain in contention.