Structuring M&A transactions: hot topics (case study)

Ekaterina Tsvetkova

Ekaterina Tsvetkova is the General Counsel of Winter Capital Advisors (WCA), an investment advisory firm, focused on private equity and venture capital investments in Europe and Emerging Markets. Funds advised by WCA, with over $1bn in assets, typically invest in high-growth companies across five global sectors: consumer, education, financial services, healthcare and technology.

Prior to joining Winter Capital Advisors in 2018, Ekaterina was a senior associate at Morgan Lewis, where she worked from 2007, advising clients on complex, contract-focused, real estate and cross-border M&A transactions. Before that, Ekaterina was a junior associate at CMS (former CMS Cameron McKenna).

Alan Kartashkin

Alan Kartashkin is the Managing Partner of Debevoise’s Moscow office. He focuses his practice on M&A, securities and corporate finance. Alan advises boards of directors, and special committees of independent directors of leading Russian companies, on corporate governance issues. He has led some of the largest public M&A transactions in Russia, including the mergers of Uralkali with Silvinit and RTS with MICEX. Alan has represented major Russian enterprises in public equity and debt offerings, in the international capital markets, including premium listings on the London Stock Exchange, as well as in a diverse range of financing transactions. Since early 2014, he has been advising leading U.S., EU, Japanese, Chinese and Russian corporations and financial institutions on the application of, and compliance with, the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU on a growing number of Russian entities, as result of the crisis in Ukraine.

Elizaveta Koryagina

Elizaveta Koryagina has more than 20 years of in-house practice in structuring and legal support of M&A transactions, subsequent assets integration and assets management and corporate governance. Her main area of expertise is telecoms.

Elizaveta participated in all major M&A and capital markets projects exercised by MegaFon since 2011. These included the IPO of MegaFon, in 2012 and delisting from the London Stock Exchange, in 2018. Elizaveta has experience in acquisitions of shares and participatory interests in Russian and foreign companies, including negotiations and obtaining regulatory approvals.

Prior to joining MegaFon, Elizaveta was in charge of corporate and M&A matters in Synterra group of companies, a national telecommunications provider in Russia, and Metromedia International Telecommunications Inc., a USA company, owning cable TV, radio and telecommunications companies in the CIS and Eastern Europe.

Elizaveta graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations, with a degree in international economy and Academic Law School (University) with the State Institute of Law of the Russian Academy of Science, with a degree in law. She has a PhD in Economics, participated in M&A conferences as a speaker, conducted master-classes in MGIMO.

Mikhail Suvorov

Mikhail Suvorov’s practice focuses on corporate transactions, particularly domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and corporate restructurings. He possesses deep M&A and corporate governance experience, and remains a trusted adviser to a stable of corporates, special committees and financial advisers.

Being dually qualified to practice in Russia and the U.S., he combines a diverse transactional experience with a deep understanding of his clients’ businesses across the energy and natural resources, consumer and retail, transportation and shipping, industrials, media, cable, technology, and telecom sectors.