Recent News from AmCham Member Companies

AUGUST 28, 2015

AECOM

After sustained commitment to the cultivation of business relations with Chinese clients, AECOM Russia has secured a contract for the provi-sion of design documentation and authorial supervision services for LIFAN for the construction of an automotive plant in Lipetsk.

Raymond Abu Fadel, Regional Director for Russia, said, “We have been chasing this opportunity for quite a while, working closely with the client to meet all of their require-ments. It is a major success for the entire team, and we hope to have more contracts with Chinese clients, as we now have a proven track record, starting with the work we are doing at Park Huaming in Moscow and now our new win project with LIFAN.”

The project in Lipetsk is estimated to be worth $300 million. LIFAN expects to produce a range of models at the plant, and will be using the facilities for welding and painting as well.

Alinga ConsultingChet Bowling, Managing Partner of Alinga Consulting and Alexie Spirihin, Director at Alinga, attended the 2015 PrimeGlobal Partner Leadership Conference in Pittsburg.

This was a good opportunity to learn from Partners of some of the leading Prime Global firms. They came away with several ideas to implement at Alinga including set-ting up a mentoring program for employees as well as Client and employee retention tools.

In addition, Chet Bowling was asked to present on Doing Business in Russia along with fellow member firms from Australia, Mexico, Canada and the UK. The topic of the seminar was – Practical Considerations of International Business: Perspectives from Successful Companies and International Advisors.

ALPE consulting

ALPE consulting together with ALP Group have started developing the in-tegration of the “Automated HR ex-penses planning and budgeting system” («1С:ПиБ HR») solution in the head of-fice, all branch offices as well as various subsidiaries of CJSC Gazpromneft-Aero.

Within the framework of the project it is planned to develop the payroll data upload from «1С: ПиБ HR» into SAP Business Warehouse via SAP Process Or-chestration. The works are to be finished by the end of August 2015.

DENTONSMaria Oleinik and Richard Cowie have joined its Cor-porate and M&A practice as partners in the Moscow office. Maria Oleinik has joined from White & Case. Richard Cowie has joined from Hogan Lovells.

Maria’s corporate experience spans a wide range of in-dustries, including oil and gas, mining and heavy indus-try sectors. She is qualified in Russia, the UK and the US and focuses on M&A, joint ventures, disposals, and financings. Maria has represented financial institutions, media companies and state corporations such as Inde-pendent Petroleum Company, EuroChem, Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant, Russian Post and Stroytransgaz.

Richard’s corporate experience includes energy, tech-nology, media and telecom, FMCG, retail, financial in-stitutions, real estate and construction. He focuses on M&A, joint ventures, and private equity. With over 12 years’ experience in advising Russian and international companies and financial institutions in Russia his im-pressive client roster includes: Rostelecom, ProfMedia, Alfa-Access-Renova consortium (AAR), Elbrus Capital, Baring Vostok, and X5 Retail Group.

DoubleTree by Hilton Moscow – Marina DoubleTree by Hilton Moscow – Marina celebrates its first anniver-sary this month! “Opening a new hotel is always challenging. It is extremely satisfying to see what we have achieved in 12 months. Credit must be given to the hotel

PrimeGlobal Partner Leadership Conference

AUGUST 28, 2015

team, to our business partners, to the owning compa-ny, as well as to our guests”, – said Uwe Kunz, General Manager. DoubleTree by Hilton Moscow – Marina has received local and international recognition during its first year. In April 2015, DoubleTree by Hilton Moscow – Marina received the Commercial Real Estate Moscow Awards in the category “Hotel property”. Also the hotel is one of 14 hotels pointed out by AD magazine, the inter-national authority in architecture and design. In addition, the hotel received the Certificate of Excellence from Trip-Advisor and nine-star rating from Booking.com.

Goltsblat BLP 27 July 2015 saw the court hearing of the claim Sony Music Enter-tainment lodged against the VKontakte social network. The legal team from Goltsblat BLР, Russian practice of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), represented the claim-ant at the hearing.

The Goltsblat BLP team, led by Elena Trusova Part-ner, Dispute resolution/Intellectual property, included Senior Associates Evgeny Oreshin, Anton Nefedev and Yana Pylaeva. The nearly 2-year court proceedings ended with a settlement agreement on July 27, 2015.

In April 2014, Sony Music Entertainment LLC, Univer-sal Music LLC and Warner Music UK lodged claims against VKontakte LLC with the St Petersburg and Leningrad Region Arbitration Court, demanding a stop to the violation of related rights to their music files.

Gowlings Russia/CIS3 Gowlings Russia/CIS part-ners have been recognized among the world’s leading trademark lawyers and agents by the Who’s Who Legal: Trademarks 2015:

• Alexander Christophoroff

• Marina Drel

• Anastassia Sinitsyna

Who’s Who Legal guides are among the world’s fore-most legal directories, recognizing the top legal prac-titioners in over 100 countries and across a range of business law areas.

Herbalife

Herbalife sponsored the Russian team during the Special Olympics World Games, which took place in Los Angeles from July, 25 to August, 2.

The company provided financial support to the Rus-sian team and ran a fundraising initiative among its Independent Associates; besides, the company be-came a Games Supplier and provided the athletes with sports equipment.

During the press conference devoted to the departure of athletes to the international competition, Irina Shevchen-ko, Senior Marketing & PR Director, Russia, Ukraine, CIS, Baltics, Mongolia & Israel at Herbalife, said: “We are very pleased to be here today, to be engaged in the Special Olympics movement. I would like to thank the leadership of the Special Olympics Committee in Russia and the Ministry of Sports for this opportunity to join efforts and promote sports, engaging more people into the social life through sports activities”.

Morgan LewisMorgan Lewis has ad-vised long standing client Sberbank Europe AG, on a €50m ($54.5m) loan to Croatian food producer and retailer Agrokor. Sberbank Europe AG is the Vienna based subsidiary of Russia’s larg-est bank Sberbank while Agrokor, based in Zagreb, is Cro-atia’s largest food and beverages producer and retailer.

The loan should be repaid 18 months after signing of the relevant agreement, and is backed by guarantees provided by Agrokor affiliates, including Ledo, its ice cream and frozen food making unit.

The facility agreement was signed on July 16, 2015 and marks the successful continuation of the long-term strategic partnership between Sberbank and Agrokor to enhance services in the CEE retail sector and demonstrates Sberbank’s increased activity in the CEE region.

Morgan Lewis lawyers from the Moscow and London offices handled the transaction. The team was led by partners Grigory Marinichev and Amanda Jennings, assisted by associate Alexey Chertov.

The Russian practice of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP)

Marina DrelAlexander Christophoroff Anastassia Sinitsyna

Russian team at the Special Olympics World Games

AUGUST 28, 2015

Wabtec Corporation

Wabtec Corporation is undertaking most strate-gically significant acquisi-tion in Wabtec company’s history. Nearly a year of extensive analysis, preparation and negotiations has culminated in Wabtec plans to ac-quire Faiveley Transport.

The strategic combination of Wabtec and Faiveley Trans-port will create one of the world’s largest public rail equipment companies, with revenues of about $4.5 bil-

lion and a presence in all key freight rail and passenger transit geographies worldwide. Wabtec expects to real-ize at least €40 million in annual pre-tax synergies from the combination, and the transaction is expected to be accretive to Wabtec’s earnings per diluted share in 2016.

Wabtec Corporation is a global provider of value-added, technology-based products and services for freight rail, passenger transit and other industrial segments. The company manufactures a range of products for locomo-tives, freight cars and passenger transit vehicles, new switcher and commuter locomotives and provides after-market services.