Kateryna Chechulina

Practice Areas

Banking & International Finance, Capital Markets, Project Finance, Structured Commodities Trade Finance, Sustainable Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring, Banking Regulatory, Financial Services, Mergers & Acquisitions

Career

Kateryna Chechulina is an English and Ukrainian qualified counsel in the Banking and Finance practice at CMS Ukraine. Having extensive experience in international banking and finance, Kateryna works on high-profile cross-border financings in the CEE, Baltics and Central Asia regions. She advises on all aspects of financings, including complex transaction structuring, and acts both for lenders and borrowers. Kateryna focuses on project finance, trade & commodity finance, acquisition and corporate finance in various sectors, including agribusiness, energy, infrastructure, TMT. Kateryna also covers sustainable and green finance and investments and ESG compliance. Kateryna advises on cross-border debt restructuring & insolvency, NPLs, M&A, PPP, all types of financial services, including insurance, banking regulatory matters, as well as municipal finance.

Kateryna has unparalleled experience in capital markets, having advised on unique capital market transactions, including between global financial institutions and central banks. Not only does Kateryna support clients in entering Ukrainian capital markets and starting trading in Ukrainian fixed income and structured products, but she also contributes to the development of the model of a sustainable and profitable trade and post-trade infrastructure in Ukraine, working on its feasibility study in the NEXT-UA project. She also advises clients on trading in derivatives (including based on standard documentation such as ISDA and GMRA) and has worked on developing licensing terms for the CCPs, regulations on clearing activities and requirements for contractual arrangements between CCPs and trading venues.

Kateryna Chechulina is a Co-Chair of the Sustainability Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine and a member of Association of Sustainable Development Experts.

Professional Memberships

EBA, ACC, ASDE, UBA, USUBC, AHK

Publications

• July 2024 – Cross-Border Payments for War Risk Insurance and Certain Guarantees / Suretyships Allowed

• May 2024 – FX Rules simplified during wartime in Ukraine

• February 2024 – Agrarian Notes: A New Instrument to Finance Agrarian Business

Clients

ING Bank, Kernel, Nibulon, Horizon Capital, FMO, IFC, DFC, IFU, NEFCO, European Investment Bank, EBRD, Raiffeisen Bank, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, UniCredit, Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), KUKE

Work Highlights

• NJJ Holding and Horizon Capital on USD 435m financing from EBRD and IFC for the landmark acquisition of Datagroup-Volia, Ukraine’s leading fixed telecom and pay TV provider, and Lifecell, the country’s third-largest and fastest-growing mobile operator

• Superhumans Center, a state-of-the-art prosthetics and rehabilitation medical centre in Ukraine, in receiving USD 25 million in political risk insurance from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

• INVL Renewable Energy Fund I, a fund investing in renewable energy projects, of INVL Asset Management, a leading alternative asset manager in the Baltic States, in relation to the EUR 24.4 mln financing (by way of notes) from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Eiffel Investment Group through Paris-based Eiffel Investment Group’s Energy Infrastructure Investment Fund, for the 60 MW capacity solar power plant project in Romania

• Banks syndicate on over EUR 300 mln financing to an optical fibre company and internet operator for its fibre rollout in Finland

• Banks syndicate on USD 100mln financing for network construction in the rural areas of Croatia and Slovenia to build high-capacity fiber network and operate the infrastructure as an open-access active network by a portfolio company of the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF), an infrastructure fund investing in greenfield projects in the broadband infrastructure space across underserved areas in Europe

• Erste Group Bank AG on EUR 100,000,000 financing to Magyar Export-Import Bank Zártkörűen Működő Részvénytársaság, Hungary

• Polish state bank on its cooperation with a major development bank within a program of green projects financing, Poland

• NEFCO (Nordic Environment Finance Corporation) on its strategic investment into Joint-Stock Commercial Bank Lviv

• ING-led syndicate of international banks, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Crédit Agricole - Corporate Investment Bank (CACIB), and Dutch development bank FMO, on the restructuring of Nibulon’s pre-export credit facility (PXF)

• Horizon Capital, a leading private equity firm in Emerging Europe, and Datagroup, a Ukrainian fibre infrastructure and digital services provider, on all the English law aspects of it leveraged acquisition of Volia, a leading cable and broadband service provider

• Advising JV (between Air Products and ArcelorMittal) on 116 financing from EBRD for the development, construction and operation of state-of-the-art Air Separation Unit

• Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego in respect of project security documents and satisfaction of various conditions subsequent on two projects: (i) a EUR 41.1 million financing insured by KUKE, polish export credit agency, for the construction of the shopping mall and office centre “Retroville” in Kyiv; and (ii) on an export credit financing in relation to the development of the Nikolsky shopping mall in Kharkiv

• Acted as the legal partner to NEXT-UA, a joint project launched by the Ukrainian government, USAID, EBRD and the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine. CMS worked with a consortium of high-profile technical and financial advisors, including Cirway Consulting, Afi, Araliya, Barva Invest and D3 Consulting

• European Investment Bank on €50mn financing for Ukraine’s on its significant investment in a landmark IT project

• DAI Global (USAID) and the National Securities and the Stock Markets Commission of Ukraine on the most important element of securities infrastructure for the capital markets in Ukraine – rules for clearing transactions with securities and licensing terms for clearing institutions

• A syndicate of banks led by ING Bank N.V. in relation to the postponement of loan payments and switch from LIBOR to a risk-free rate under the USD 450m pre-export facility for Ukraine’s Kernel Group

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Ukraine, CEE/CIS/Baltics/Central Asia, UK

Languages Spoken

English, Ukrainian, Russian

Industry Sector Expertise

Infrastructure & Projects, Energy, Agriculture, TMT, Fintech, Insurance, Derivatives

Education