LAWFUEL – The Law Firm Newswire – Lovells has advised the shareholders of a top 50 Russian bank, RosEvroBank, on the sale of minority stake to the German development finance institution Deutsche- Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (“DEG”) (by way of subscription for new shares in RosEvroBank), and the Russian private equity fund of Renaissance Investment Management group (“RIM”) (by way of sale and purchase of existing shares in RosEvroBank). The transaction was announced on 25 June 2007. The value of the transaction is in excess of US $50 million.
DEG purchased 6% of the shares in RosEvroBank and 6% were purchased by RIM acting through a Cypriot SPV. RosEvroBank will use the proceeds from the issue of new shares to develop its regional infrastructure and to expand its credit portfolio. Representatives of DEG and RIM will join the board of RosEvroBank. The deal will have a positive impact on the development and capitalisation potential of RosEvroBank.
RosEvroBank is a part of RosEvroGroup which operates in the banking sector and is one of the market leaders in the logistics and real estate development sectors. Although the shareholders of RosEvroBank have conducted similar transactions in their other businesses, this transaction is the first of this type for RosEvroBank.
Having met the RosEvroGroup team on the other side of a transaction in 2005, Lovells has established and successfully developed a long-standing relationship with RosEvroGroup ensuring a continuous deal flow from them. This transaction has further strengthened Lovells’ firm relationship with this valuable client.
The Lovells team was led by the Moscow-based corporate partner Oxana Balayan (managing partner of the Moscow office) with the support of corporate consultant Maria Baeva (Moscow), senior associate Keith Woodhouse (London) and associate Shamil Sadykov (Moscow).
Speaking today, Oxana Balayan, said:
“We are very pleased to have assisted the shareholders of RosEvroBank in the disposal and placement of its shares to quality financial investors.This deal underlines the strong interest that international financial institutions have in the Russian market.”
