December 2019 – Kinstellar has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to the German development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, a subsidiary of KfW Bankengruppe, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, in connection with a long-term facility of up to USD 20 million for Astarta Group. Established in 1993, Astarta is a major Ukrainian agricultural business, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Astarta is now operating around 240 thousand hectares of farm land in Ukraine and is one of the leading national grain, oilseeds, sugar and milk producers.
Part of DEG's investment will be directed at modernisation of Astarta's production equipment, aiming to further reduce consumption of natural resources under the "Best Available Technology" Programme of Astarta.
During the structuring and negotiation of the transaction the new laws on foreign exchange and creditor rights' protection entered into effect in Ukraine and the transaction documentation had to be reconsidered with the new rules in mind. Kinstellar's team has also extensively explored with DEG different borrowing structures available under Ukrainian foreign exchange law.
Kinstellar's team advising on the transaction was led by Andriy Nikiforov, Counsel and Head of Banking & Finance in Kyiv, and included Ganna Kalinichenko (Senior Associate, Banking & Finance), Oleh Andreikiv (Senior Associate, Corporate), Viktoria Pysmenna (Associate, Real Estate), and Julia Palaida (Associate, Corporate).