DLA Piper advised Leroy Merlin, one of the largest European DIY retail networks, on the acquisition of Bricolage Ukraine LLC, a Ukrainian company owning a trade center in Kyiv, located at ul. Polyarnaya 17-A, where the first Leroy Merlin DIY store in Ukraine has opened.
The transaction was structured via acquisition of shares in Bricolage Ukraine LLC, and was split into several stages.
DLA Piper supported Leroy Merlin on legal issues, including development of the transaction structure, negotiations support, drafting transactional documents, bank guarantee, as well as preliminary and principal lease agreements, legal support on various corporate, land, real estate, utilities, investment matters and legal advice on opening of the Leroy Merlin DIY construction hypermarket.
The team working on this transaction was led by Natalia Kochergina, partner and Head of Real Estate in Kyiv, and included Dmytro Pikalov and Sergiy Portnoy, associates; as well as Illya Sverdlov, senior associate advising on tax issues.
Natalia Kochergina, said: “The work we have done for Leroy Merlin was a multi-faceted exercise, where we provided not only complex legal support but also negotiations support, which ensured that both sides of the transaction spoke the same language and were ‘on the same page’. The success of this major transaction clearly indicates that international and Ukrainian standards of doing business are converging and the Ukrainian retail market has started its revival following the economic downturn”.
Grzegorz Waskow, CFO of Leroy Merlin in Ukraine commented: “We are glad that DLA Piper supported us in this project here in Ukraine. They successfully managed complex legal issues arising during the acquisition and the whole process of opening our first store in Kyiv. Special thanks to Natalia Kochergina, head of this legal team”.
According to the development strategy of the network, announced previously, the Merlin Leroy construction hypermarket in the Obolon district is the first, but not the last, Leroy Merlin in Ukraine.
