Aequo

Ukraine

Partner Mariya Nizhnik heads the antitrust practice at AEQUO, which provides the full suite of competition law services. Nizhnik, who rejoined the firm in 2020 as counsel from Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee, where she served as deputy head and helped develop the Ukrainian competition law framework, works alongside managing partner Denis Lysenko and Sergey Denisenko. Five associates also spend a majority of their time on competition work, which focuses primarily on merger control.

Aequo successfully advised Mobile TeleSystems, a Russian telecommunications group, on the sale of its Ukrainian business to Bakcell, which is a major Azerbaijani telecoms company. The Antimonopoly Committee unconditionally cleared the deal after a Phase I review. Local retail chain Novus and two regional rivals – Delicat Retail and Veresen Plus – tapped Aequo for advice on the establishment of a joint purchasing alliance, which the competition authority cleared. It was the first retail alliance cleared by the watchdog, and the decision centred on European best practices on weighing efficiencies against potential harm. Aequo also obtained clearance for Epicentr K on its acquisition of Svarog’s business division, which was complicated owing to both companies’ large agro-holdings. The team assisted Klinge Pharma and GlaxoSmithKline in the sale of three of the former’s skincare brands to the latter’s consumer health division. Several private equity companies rely on Aequo for merger control help, including Apax Partners, Dragon Capital and Apollo Global Management. Turning to behavioural work, Aequo acted for Ecosoft, successfully persuading the competition authority to drop an investigation into the company’s public procurement activities.