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About Maria Zaitseva

Maria's main focus is large and complex M&As, both public and private. She has extensive private capital advisory experience and funds expertise.

Since 2002 she has successfully led the teams assisting clients with a number of high-profile mergers and acquisitions  and joint ventures in a variety of sectors from energy to retail, from tech to development and construction. She has extensive experience advising private equity investors and consortiums.

Maria excels in structuring the most complex deals, and is a good negotiator. Her broad caseload also includes corporate restructurings, carve-outs, representing clients in corporate disputes, advising clients on option programmes and significant commercial contracts.Having been ro secondment to VISA International, she gained expertise in fintech and payments space.

Maria speaks Russian and English and has a basic knowledge of German.

Recent work

  • Advising Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) on its sale of Amitra Capital Limited (Amitra Capital) to Arrow Global Group Limited. Amitra Capital specialises in the management of European non-performing loans (NPLs) and illiquid real estate investments with a strong footprint in Spain’s and Portugal’s NPL and real estate markets;
  • Advising the key shareholder on the merger between Wintershall Dea AG (‘Wintershall Dea’) and Harbour Energy plc (“Habour”). The merger agreement provides for the transfer of Wintershall Dea's E&P business to Harbour;
  • Advising  Eurobank on the second round of private funding to Plum Fintech Limited to be provided by a large consortium of investors;
  • Advising PATRIZIA SE, a listed German investment manager in the real estate market, in a restructuring of its wholly owned venture capital investment fund [(c. €50m AUM)] that included the fund's management acquiring 50 per cent of the fund's investment advisor and relevant shareholders’ arrangements;
  • Advising Schoen Clinic Group on its sale of Schoen Clinic London to Fortius Clinic, the UK’s largest single orthopaedic MSK group;
  • Advising Consortium of investors including Russian Direct Investments Fund, Russia-China Investment Fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Kuwait Investment Authority on the investment into a minority stake in three complex construction and operation of roads, railways, urban transportation and public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the Russian Federation operated by Leader Management Company, with a total investment value upwards of RUB 13 billion;
  • Advising Consortium of investors including Russian Direct Investments Fund, Russia-China Investment Fund, Mubadala, PIF and Silk Road Fund into the development project on the site of Tushino airfield in Russia with a total investment of over RUB 90 bn. The investors intend to implement the project as one of the most advanced multifunctional technological clusters with quality residential and office properties, sports and social infrastructure, research and educational facilities, and recreational zones;
  • Advising Severgroup, a Russian investment company, on the approx. US$730m acquisition of a 41.91% stake in Lenta, Russia's largest hypermarket chain, from its main shareholders - Luna (an investment company of TPG Group) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), carried out through acquisition of GDRs listed on LSE and MOEX , combined with mandatory tender offer to all shareholders and holders of GDRs of Lenta for up to 100% of Lenta and up to US$1,75 bln;
  • Advising Polyus Gold on its joint venture with Rostec for the purposes of their ultimately successful joint participation in the auction to obtain a mining licence for the Sukhoi Log gold deposit in Irkutsk, the largest gold deposit in Russia.
  • Advising NIPIGaz, which is 50 per cent owned by Sibur, on the joint venture with foreign partners to participate in the front-end engineering and design for the Arctic LNG-2 project for Novatek and for the development of similar projects in Russia.
  • Advising Telconet Capital on the sale of 30 per cent of the shares in Yota, and related licensing, IP transfer, shareholders' agreement and financing arrangements.
  • Advising Polyus Gold on its joint venture with Polymetal to develop the Nezhdaninskoe gold deposit in Yakutia.

Qualifications

  • Solicitor, England and Wales
  • Moscow State University, law degree with honours
  • International Association of Accountants, accounting and tax