SZP’s Managing Partner Vitaliy Vodolazkin and Partner Arman Berdalin Attend IBA’s III Mergers and Acquisitions in Russia and the CIS Conference

SZP’s Managing Partner Vitaliy Vodolazkin and Partner Arman Berdalin attend IBA’s IIIrd Mergers and Acquisitions in Russia and the CIS Conference held in Moscow on 6-7 October 2011. The event was hosted by the Corporate Law and M&A Transactions Committee of the International Bar Association in cooperation with the Mergers and Acquisitions Journal.

The Conference covered the following topics:

• Major trends in the development of the M&As market in Russia and the CIS.  Macroeconomic factors and domestic resources.
• Privatization in Russia and the CIS.
• Setting up joint ventures in Russia and the CIS.
• Structuring M&A transactions: the prospects for national and foreign law in Russia and the CIS.
• Judicial practice in the field of mergers and acquisitions.
• Tax-related matters of M&A transactions in Russia and the CIS.
• М&А in the oil and gas sector.
• Private equity.

The conference was attended by M&A legal advisors, corporate lawyers, economists and other professionals in the field of mergers and acquisitions, company CEO’s, strategic development advisors, investment bankers, investment managers, who are interested in expanding their global distribution network, corporate advisors (lawyers, commercial bankers, accountants, etc.), government officials and regulators, as well as others interested in the Russian and CIS M&As markets.

The first day of the conference hosted 4 sessions. PartnerArman Berdalinspoke a session titledCase Studies: A Recipe for Success in Setting up Joint Ventures in Russia and the CIS. This session dealt with such matters as the increased importance of complying with agreements reached between parties to a transaction, transaction documents (shareholders’ agreements), antimonopoly regulation and restrictions of foreign participation in strategic sectors, overview of requirements for controlling/blocking shareholding, rights of shareholders, current trends in setting up joint ventures in Russia and the CIS.

Managing PartnerVitaliy Vodolazkinspoke for the session titledTax-related Matters of M&A Transactions in Russia and the CISheld during the second day of the conference. The session discussed the most important aspects of asset deals, legal and tax specifics of methods for asset transfer deals, specifics of planning, consummating and fulfilling deals involving assets located in Russia and other CIS countries, specifics of transfer of particular types of assets and other urgent matters under consideration.

These two sessions were organized as panel discussions during which the speaker who represented a particular jurisdiction, i.e. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine or Kazakhstan, had an opportunity to voice his or her opinion on each of the topics mentioned above, to listen to the opinions of other participants and have answers to any questions that may have been asked.

Through the conference, the participants expressed great interest in the legislation of Kazakhstan and welcomed our speakers with particularly great attention both during and after presentation of their session reports. Other participants of the conference assessed the information presented by SZP’s speakers as highly informative and extremely interesting and helpful.

IBA’s IIIrd Mergers and Acquisitions in Russia and the CIS Conference provided a great opportunity for all participants to share their unique experience, discuss the most urgent matters and to proposed efficient solutions for existing problems.