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 Dechert Moscow corporate team that advised Delightful Hill on the acquisition was led by partner Shane DeBeer, assisted by associate Ruslan Koretski, as well as national partner Evgeniya Korotkova and associates Evgeniya Gaysinskaya, Alexander Egorushkin and Kirill Skopchevskiy. Dechert is also advising on the regulatory approval aspects of the deal.

Dechert was ranked by mergermarket as one of the leading top legal advisors by deal value in both Russia and Central and Eastern Europe in 2010. Recent highlights for Dechert’s Moscow corporate practice include advising PepsiCo, Inc. on its approximately US$3.8 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC, Russia’s leading branded food and beverage company, making it the largest food and beverage business in Russia, and Canada’s Kinross Gold Corporation on its US$350 million acquisition of a stake in a gold and silver mining company in Chukotka.