Valery Lavrov

Valery Lavrov is a Senior Associate based in the Dubai office. He is a Russian-qualified lawyer with over nine years of experience advising international companies on a broad range of corporate matters across Russia, the UAE and Australia. His primary practice area is Mergers and Acquisitions, with a practice focusing on cross-border M&A, joint ventures, regulatory matters and private equity investments.

Prior to joining the firm, he held positions at the international law firms White & Case (offices in Moscow and Sydney) and White Square in Dubai.

His recent experience includes advising Selectel, the largest independent IT infrastructure provider in Russia, on the acquisition by Catalytic People of a 25% stake, the sale of a 10% equity stake to an investment company founded by former Megafon CEO Gevork Vermishyan, the sale of a 4.852% stake to Selectel board member Andrey Golukhov, the acquisition of United Network, and the acquisition by a Tier-5 investment partnership of a 25% stake. He has also advised Softline on the sale of more than 10% of its shares to Sk Capital, and Balchug Capital on the acquisition of pet food producer Raduga and the subsequent sale of a controlling stake to a strategic investor.

Other matters include advising Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers on the creation of a joint venture regarding the US$4.2 billion Karratha Urea Project in Western Australia; EIG/MidOcean on its US$12.4 billion joint bid with Brookfield for the acquisition of Origin Energy Limited; a major multinational commodity trader on the sale of its key group companies via a bidding process; and Rostelecom on the establishment of a joint venture focused on biometric technologies, the disposal of a 44.8% stake in SafeData LLC to VTB Bank for US$464.3 million, and the acquisition of 75% of the developer of the Sailfish mobile operating system.

He has also advised VTB Capital as financial advisor on several mandates, including the US$968 million sale of 50% + 2 shares in PJSC Transcontainer via auction process, and a US$250 million investment in the online cinema platform Ivi.ru. Other work includes advising Novaport Group on the potential acquisition of Auriant Group and the potential disposal of 15 Russian regional airports, Nipigas on the US$22 billion construction of the Baltic LNG gas processing plant, and Yandex on its acquisition of rights to approximately four hectares of land in Moscow for its new headquarters, a deal recognised as "Best property deal in CEE" at the Project Finance Awards 2018.

He holds a Master's Degree (2017) and a Bachelor's Degree (2015) from Lomonosov Moscow State University, and is admitted in the Russian Federation. He speaks English and Russian.