News

Kyiv, 29 January 2010 — Avellum Partners acted as a legal advisor to the shareholders of Vik Oil Group on the sale of the Group’s shares in favor of Russian-British company “TNK-BP”. The parties entered into respective agreement at the end of December 2009, while the closing of the transaction is planned for the 1st quarter of 2010.

Vik Oil Group owns a network of 118 fuel filling stations in 13 regions of Ukraine and is engaged in retail and wholesale sales of petroleum products in Ukraine. In addition to 118 fuel filling stations, Vik Oil Group has 8 petroleum storage depots and 122 land plots (for construction of fuel filling stations) at various stages of development. The network of fuel filling stations of Vik Oil Group previously worked under the brand “Ukrtatnafta”, but it is now undergoing the re-branding and creating a new brand “Formula”.

Team of Avellum Partners, which worked on this transaction, was led by the Managing Partner, Mykola Stetsenko, and included lawyers Yuriy Nechayev, Iryna Nikolayevska, and Volodymyr Solohub.

Commenting on this news, Mykola Stetsenko said: “First of all, this transaction is remarkable, because it is one of the few major M&A transactions on the Ukrainian market in the crisis year. Moreover, it was made in the sector, which is characterized by an intense competition. This transaction again demonstrated the importance of professional legal support of such transactions”.

CEO of Vik Oil Group, Mykola Gavrylenko, said: “We were pleasantly surprised with the high professional level of our legal advisors, whose position during the negotiations and other stages of the transaction was characterized, on the one hand, by an excellent understanding of all legal matters and, on the other hand – by taking into account the commercial needs of the parties. Such position significantly contributed to the timely resolution of all issues, which arose between the parties during this transaction”.

Legal support for TNK-BP was provided by law firm “DLA Piper Ukraine”.