"CMS do a lot of real estate financing, but there isn't a lot of that about," comments one partner, referencing its real estate strength. Despite this remark, the firm does report a busy year, with a number of good deals done and pending....
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"CMS do a lot of real estate financing, but there isn't a lot of that about," comments one partner, referencing its real estate strength. Despite this remark, the firm does report a busy year, with a number of good deals done and pending.
Arguably the best of these deals was when department head and partner Karen Young led a team advising Aareal Bank as it provided secured financing on a sale by Horus International of five office buildings to Lenmar Capital. The total overall value came to $808 million, and it was completed in November 2010.
CMS also made a good hire this year, taking partner Konstantin Baranov from Allen & Overy. He joined in November 2010.
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After reporting a year flush with energy deals on the back of its merger, CMS Russia seems to have expanded its scope a little, working with a number of banks over the past 12 months. This includes names such as Sberbank, Russia's largest, and Aareal bank....
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After reporting a year flush with energy deals on the back of its merger, CMS Russia seems to have expanded its scope a little, working with a number of banks over the past 12 months. This includes names such as Sberbank, Russia's largest, and Aareal bank.
In fact, one of the mandates on which the firm was engaged by Sberbank was an energy deal, advising on its acquisition of a shareholding in solar power company Nitol Solar. The stake was purchased from Alfa Bank for a confidential sum, and completed in January 2011.
Away from the banks partner David Cranfield, who is based in Russia and has a good experience in coordinating the different offices working on international deals, advised the British construction firm Interior Services Group (ISG) on its full acquisition of Olson Enterprise from Eurasia Group, a Russian investment and industrial concern. The deal completed in June 2010 for an undisclosed sum.
Finally, the team, again helmed by Cranfield, advised Ilim Timber Industry on its €100 million acquisition of Klausner Nordic Timber and Klausner Holz Bayern, German sawmills, from Klausner Group, a German company active in the wood industry. It acquisitions were completed in August 2010.
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CMS Russia wobbled slightly at the departure of Kirill Ratnikov in the preceding year but, as the market predicted, it didn't particularly affect the capabilities of the team, led by Jean Francois Marquaire and Stephen Cozens.Having been engaged on a confidential warehousing deal, the firm also has continued to advise the North West Concession Company on the Moscow to St Petersburg toll road, a $2 billion deal that reached initial closing last year but which still requires work....
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CMS Russia wobbled slightly at the departure of Kirill Ratnikov in the preceding year but, as the market predicted, it didn't particularly affect the capabilities of the team, led by Jean Francois Marquaire and Stephen Cozens.
Having been engaged on a confidential warehousing deal, the firm also has continued to advise the North West Concession Company on the Moscow to St Petersburg toll road, a $2 billion deal that reached initial closing last year but which still requires work.
In addition, the firm also advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as it extended a loan, denominated in Kazakh Tenge, to utilities company Aktau TSV&V, which works out of the city of Aktau, in Kazakhstan.
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