Locations
The portfolio of transactions between the Kazakh and Chinese state-owned partners involving numerous other international companies included divestments and commercial agreements concerning a number of oil and gas businesses in Kazakhstan.
European law firm Fieldfisher has advised longstanding client Coöperatieve KMG EP U.A. and its parent company JSC National Company “KazMunayGas” (KMG), Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company, in respect of a set of cross-border, inter-linked transactions between KMG and the subsidiaries of Chinese state-owned investment fund, CITIC Group.
The package of transactions included two share sales in indirect oil and gas companies (including Caspi Bitum JV LLP, a bitumen plant owner and UTTiOS LLP, a businesses providing transportation and special equipment services to oil and gas companies), and updating existing shareholder arrangements in respect of the oil and gas joint venture with CITIC Resources Holdings Limited.
Final closing of the project was achieved on 31 August 2021 and was the culmination of commercial negotiations between the partners stretching back to 2017.
The project involved a large number of companies in several jurisdictions, including Kazakhstan, China, Hong Kong, Canada, the Netherlands, BVI and the Dubai Free Trade Zone.
The cross-practice corporate, CIS and finance team advising KMG was led from Fieldfisher's London office by corporate partner, Nodir Sidikov, supported by a team from the firm's Beijing office.
Commenting on the closing of the transaction package, Nodir Sidikov said:
"We are very pleased to have brought this important project to a successful conclusion for our client.
"This marks the culmination of a number of years of negotiations between two key players in Central Asia's energy industry."
Nodir was assisted by senior associate Tamara Vasiljeva; associate Anastasiya Kapustina; solicitor Kuanysh Sarsenbayev; and paralegal Alisher Satimov; and received invaluable help from colleagues in the Fieldfisher corporate and CIS team: senior associate Irina Mikhnova; associate Galina Rivkina; senior paralegal Irina Dimitrova; senior paralegal Yana Dorking; paralegal Valeriya Shleina; and translator Tatiana Seaman; the Fieldfisher London finance team: partners Oliver Abel-Smith and Matt Hinxman; and director Anna Crosby; and the team at Fieldfisher China: Managing Partner Zhaofeng Zhou and partner Feng Sheng.