Squire Sanders has appointed Eugenia Bektasheva as European partner in Banking and Finance in its Moscow office.

Hogan Lovells in Moscow has advised Credit Bank of Moscow (open joint-stock company) (CBoM) on the issue of a U.S$ 200 million Eurobond, which signed on Tuesday 2 August 2011 and is due to close on Friday 5 August 2011.

Dewey & LeBoeuf has advised Credit Europe Bank NV, Credit Europe Bank Ltd, ZAO Raiffeisenbank (Moscow) and Raiffeisen Bank International AG (Vienna) on the $280 million refinancing of the acquisition of Moscow’s Ritz Carlton Hotel by Verny Capital (Kazakhstan).

Global law firm White & Case LLP has provided English and Russian law advice to RusVinyl LLC (‘RusVinyl’), and transaction sponsors, CJSC SIBUR Holding and SolVin GmBH & Co KG, on the €750 million project financing of a 330,000 tonnes pa PVC plant in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Salans’ Moscow Banking & Finance team has acted for RGS Holdings Limited, the holding company of Rosgosstrakh Insurance Company (RGS), Russia’s leading insurer, in an 18 billion ruble (approx. $639 million equivalent) loan from VTB Bank.

Jones Day represented Alfa CTC Holdings in connection with the $1.1 billion sale of its 25.1% beneficial interest in CTC Media, Inc. (CTC) to Telcrest Investments Limited. CTC, a NASDAQ-listed company (NASDAQ: CTCM), is Russia’s leading independent television broadcaster. Telcrest is a newly formed company owned by Mediaset LLC, National Media Group JSC, Abit Holdings Limited, OJSC Surgutneftegaz, and Itera Media Limited. Alfa agreed to the sale after MTG Russia, the largest shareholder of CTC, waived its rights under a right of first offer provision in the stockholders agreement among Alfa CTC, CTC, and MTG Russia.

King & Spalding, a leading international law firm, announced today that it has opened an office in Moscow after having received the necessary government registration from the State Registration Chamber. The office will work closely with the firm’s transactional and international arbitration practices in Europe. Complementing a broad-based transactional practice, the Moscow office offers particular expertise in the energy and natural resources, real estate, life sciences, financial services, automotive and telecommunications/ media/ technology industries. This is King & Spalding’s 17th office worldwide.

Lawyers from international law firm Dechert LLP’s Moscow office advised Delightful Hill, part of China’s Winsway Group Holdings Ltd, on its entry into an agreement for the US$90 million acquisition of a 60% stake in Divalane Holdings Ltd, a Cyprus holding company that owns Russian coal company LLC Arkticheskie Razrabotki with operations in the Apsat deposit in Chita Oblast, Eastern Siberia. The Apsat deposit has coal resources estimated at over 2.2 billion tons. The deal, which is subject to approval by Russian antimonopoly authorities, would represent one of the first major Chinese acquisitions in the Russian coal sector.

The international law firm King & Spalding today announced the establishment of a major presence in Moscow with its initial hiring of five lawyers from Hogan Lovells and White & Case. The Moscow office will be King & Spalding’s 17th worldwide and will work closely with the firm’s extensive transactions practices in London, the historic legal centre for transactions originating in Russia, as well as its highly regarded international arbitration practice in Paris, an important venue for Russian disputes. Opening in Moscow, which will occur following receipt of government registration, has also been a widely anticipated next step in the expansion of King & Spalding’s top-ranked international energy practice, and the office will have close ties to the firm’s existing operations in the global energy centres of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Singapore, Houston, London and New York.