Aequo has advised the Epicentr Group on its receipt of a USD 70 million multi-currency secured loan from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank.
According to Aequo, the financing "will support the group’s agriculture business program for 2019-2021 anticipating, in particular, the construction of three new and modernization of four existing grain silos and the purchase of agricultural machinery.”
The Epicentr Group is a Ukrainian private group operating in the do-it-yourself industry and retail sector. It operates a retail network of 58 hypermarkets while also being an agricultural producer and operating a land bank of 110,000 hectares.
The Thessaloniki-headquartered Black Sea Trade and Development Bank is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity, and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the bank is EUR 3.45 billion.
The Aequo team included Partner Yulia Kyrpa, Counsel Denys Kulgavyi, and Associate Olesya Mashtaler.
Aequo did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.
Last year, Aequo advised on another loan to the Epicentr Group — its receipt of a five-year loan of approximately four million euros from Raiffeisen Bank International — though, on that deal, it worked on the lender side (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 5, 2019).
Editor's note: After this article was published, CEE Legal Matters learned that Baker McKenzie advised BSTDB on the deal. The firm's team included Managing Partner Serhiy Chorny and Associate Ganna Smyrnova.
