Baker & McKenzie has recently acted as Ukrainian, Polish and Luxembourg law counsel in the initial public offering of WESTA ISIC S.A. For 25% of the company’s shares which were placed during the IPO and admitted for listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the company raised PLN129.6 million. The multi-jurisdictional team was led by partners Konrad Konarski (Warsaw) and Serhiy Chorny (Kyiv) with the key input from associates Olena Kuchynska (Kyiv); and, Michal Glowacki and Piotr Kowalik (Warsaw). Partner Raphael Collin and associate Nicolas Ronzel advised on Luxembourg law matters.

 

This transaction follows a recent IPO of a Ukrainian producer of grain and oilseeds KSG Agro S.A., where the company raised about PLN108 million. Partners Konrad Konarski and Oksana Simonova led the Baker & McKenzie team, which included associates Olena Kuchynska and Michal Glowacki. Partner Laurent Fessmann advised on Luxembourg law matters.

 

WESTA becomes the eighth company with origins in Ukraine to be listed in the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Baker & McKenzie has advised on seven of these, having previously advised as transaction counsel on Sadovaya Group and Milkiland in 2010, Kernel in 2007, and Astarta in 2006, and as underwriter’s counsel on Industrial Milk Company in 2011.

 

Konrad Konarski, Head of the Securities practice group at the Warsaw office said, “Within the last 6 months, we helped to successfully complete five IPOs of Ukrainian companies in Poland. This exemplifies that the surprising precedents of Astarta and Kernel have paved the way for a tide of developing Ukrainian companies seeking financing on the Polish capital market. Warsaw has actually become the Central European financial hub and first listing choice for Ukrainian companies. We are happy to share with clients our precedent experience gained in those IPOs, and we hope to see more agricultural and industrial companies from Ukraine to raise financing through an IPO in Poland.”

 

Kyiv office’s Head of the Securities practice Serhiy Chorny added, “We continue to help Ukrainian companies to debut in the international capital markets in the most time-efficient and cost-efficient manner.  Recently, this task has become easier for us with the opening of our Luxembourg office.  Now, we can take pride of the best geographical coverage to suit every need of a Ukrainian client in structuring and implementing IPOs as well as public debt offerings.”