Vasil Kisil & Partners Advises SEB Group on Sale of Its Subsidiary Bank in Ukraine and Concurrent Acquisition of a New Bank to Continue Providing Services to International Corporate Clients

On November 17, 2011, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), the holding company of SEB Group, entered into agreements on a transaction involving an acquisition of a newly registered Ukrainian bank (ACCEPT BANK PJSC) for the purposes of further servicing of international corporate clients of SEB Group in Ukraine, and the sale of SEB BANK PJSC (subsidiary bank of SEB Group in Ukraine) to a group of companies belonging to a Ukrainian investor Oleksandr Adarich, with a preliminary transfer of all international corporate clients to ACCEPT BANK PJSC prior to the transaction completion.

Both stages of the transaction were successfully completed: the acquisition by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) of 100% shares in ACCEPT BANK PJSC took place on March 7, 2012, and the sale by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) of a majority stake in SEB BANK PJSC to Oleksandr Adarich’s group of companies was completed on June 7, 2012.

Vasil Kisil & Partners acted as the sole legal advisor to Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) in the process of developing the structure of the transaction and drafting all transaction-related contractual documents, as well as obtaining regulatory approvals for the acquisition of ACCEPT BANK PJSC by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ). The firm provided legal support for the launch of the operating activities of ACCEPT BANK PJSC as a banking institution (expanding the NBU exchange license for performance of banking transactions, obtaining the licenses of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission for trading in securities and engagement in the depositary activities of a securities custodian, obtaining membership in the payment systems Visa and Mastercard, etc.), provided full legal support for the transfer of international corporate clients of SEB BANK PJSC to ACCEPT BANK PJSC, and provided further support for the completion of both stages of the transaction.

Vasil Kisil & Partners’ team consisted of Senior Associate Maryna Fedorenko and Associates Dmitriy Boyko, Kseniya Ostrovskaya and Tatiana Gavrilyuk under the leadership of Partners Denis Lysenko and Yulia Kyrpa.