Serhiy Piontkovsky - Baker & McKenzie
Managing partner
7 points
Being one of the country’s main legal experts on heavy industries, such as energy, chemicals, mining and infrastructure, Harvard Law School graduate Serhiy Piontkovsky was part of the single biggest mergers and acquisitions deal in Ukraine’s history.
Piontkovsky was an adviser to the world’s largest steel-producing company, MittalSteel (now ArcelorMittal), in the privatization tender on Kryvorizhstal, Ukraine’s largest steel mill.
This 2005 tender was not only the biggest privatization ever to take place in Ukraine, as the steel mill was sold for a whopping $4.8 billion, but is also referred to as Ukraine’s only open and transparent sale of state property.
Had Piontkovsky quit law after this transaction alone, his career would be considered complete by many. But six years on, Piontkovsky is still at it, taking on the most challenging legal cases.
To name just a few, Piontkovsky is involved in advising on the pioneer project of building Ukraine’s first concession road, with roads being one of the country’s most problematic and underdeveloped areas.
He has also taken on a project advising several potential strategic investors from the United States and Europe in connection with the pending privatization of regional energy distributors.
To put it mildly, most of the experts do not expect that this upcoming privatization will be a model of openness and transparency like the one of Kryvorizhstal, due to the potential interest of the country’s main industrial and financial groups.
They are allergic to competition and use their influence over politicians to keep outsiders out.
Piontkovsky is also known for advising the U.S. government on the acquisition of the land plot for the new U.S. Embassy compound in Kyiv in a $5 million deal.
While it may sound like an easy job compared to his other projects, this deal is the first ever land acquisition by a foreign state in Ukraine, which means that Piontkovsky, for at least the second time since Kryvorizhstal, has made history.
