Pepeliaev Group creates Direct Private Investments Group

Pepeliaev Group has formed a group specialising in supporting direct private investments. Having successfully completed a series of projects in this field and in view of clients’ heightened interest in it together with the experience our lawyers have accumulated, we have created a dedicated team of lawyers to support direct private investments.
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers advise clients on various aspects of investment projects, including issues of creating investment funds, providing support in mergers and acquisitions, tax structuring and more.

The firm offers the following services in direct private investments:

► Creating and registering investment funds in Russia and foreign jurisdictions (including drafting agreements between investors (partners), and the funds’ investment declarations etc).
► Carrying out legal due diligence of assets.
► Structuring M&A transactions being entered into by direct private investment funds and unit investment trusts.
► Concluding members' or shareholders' agreements in the context of joint ventures between direct private investment funds and their Russian partners.
► Providing legal support to direct private investment funds in the process of their entering and leaving projects.
► Providing support on transactions in which loan financing is attracted.
► Advising on the tax aspects of setting up and operating direct private investment funds and unit investment trusts.
► Advising on tax matters when structuring asset acquisitions and attracting financing.
► Analysing and recommending how to reduce tax risks for portfolio companies.

The work of Pepeliaev Group’s Direct Private Investments Group is coordinated by Dmitry Koronchik, under the direction of Nikolay Solodovnikov, the Head of the firm’s Corporate Practice.

Dmitry has more than seven years’ experience of working in corporate law, on M&A transactions and in supporting private investments. He has been involved in many major projects, including working on international M&A deals, forming joint ventures, company restructurings and asset management.

Lawyers in the Direct Private Investments Group have undertaken a range of projects providing legal support to private investments. These include:

► Advising Fleming Family and Partners on issues in the formation of FF&P Russian Real Estate Development Limited (an investment company specialising in the construction of real estate in Russia), as well as on issues connected with creating funds for investment in other Russian assets.
► Advising (together with the lawyers Kirkland & Ellis) the investment fund Bessemer Venture Partners on issues arising from a capital investment in Enforta, a national WiMAX network operator.
► Advising, together with the UK firm Slaughter & May, an American hedge fund on issues connected with undertaking derivatives transactions in Russia.

“Creating the Direct Private Investments Group is the next step in Pepeliaev Group’s development. Broadening the range of services we provide to out clients opens up new investment possibilities ahead of them. This is explained by the fact that our unique selling point is not only that we know how to properly structure the acquisition process for an asset – we also know how to increase the efficiency of a portfolio company’s operations by optimising or removing the existing legal, corporate, tax and other risks,” affirms Dmitry Koronchik.