London — October 25, 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Chadbourne & Parke LLP represented International Finance Corporation in a US$82 million loan for the modernization of a Lukoil refinery in Romania in a deal that marked IFC’s first investment in the refining sector in Eastern Europe.
The financing agreement, announced October 20, is the second such deal in the past few months in which Chadbourne was on the other side of a deal from Lukoil. The first was in connection with a US$180 million financing made by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in connection with the Shah Deniz/South Caucasus gas pipeline, which was signed at the end of July.
On the refinery deal, the financing includes US$35 million for IFC’s account and US$47 million in syndications by commercial banks and underwritten by ING Bank. The project is aimed at modernizing and revamping the S.C. Petrotel-Lukoil S.A. refinery in Ploesti, Romania, a major oil industry hub in that country.
Chadbourne attorneys working on the deal were London office partner Nabil Khodadad and associate Rubin Weston, as well as Moscow office associate Konstantin Konstantinov. In Romania, Chadbourne was assisted on Romanian law issues by Simon Dayes, Gabriel Sidere and Csaba Kovacs of Hayhurst Robinson.
OAO Lukoil of Russia acquired the refinery from the Romanian government in 1998 through a privatization process. Since then, Lukoil has established an integrated petroleum business in Romania, including about 300 retail stations throughout the country.
About Chadbourne & Parke LLP
Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, corporate finance, energy, telecommunications, commercial and products liability litigation, securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, white collar defense, intellectual property, antitrust, domestic and international tax, insurance and reinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, employment law and ERISA, trusts and estates and government contract matters. The Firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Moscow, Kyiv, Warsaw (through a Polish partnership), Almaty, Beijing and a multinational partnership, Chadbourne & Parke, in London. For additional information, visit www.chadbourne.com.
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