David M. Wack focuses on cross-border transactions with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate finance and capital markets transactions in Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Wack’s practice involves transactions in a variety of industries including retail, fast-moving consumer goods, infrastructure, manufacturing, real estate, energy, media and telecommunication.

Mr. Wack’s private equity/venture capital practice has been recommended by Practical Law Company’s Which lawyer? Yearbook 2009, the 2008 edition of Legal 500 Europe and Chambers Europe 2010. He was also named in the 2008 Guide to the World's Leading Private Equity Lawyers. The PLC Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook named him a leader in M&A in Russia. He was highly recommended in the 2008 edition of Chambers Global for capital markets and appears in The Best Lawyers in Russia for his corporate and mergers and acquisition practice.

He has been a co-author of the Russian Federation chapters of the PLC Cross-border Private Equity Handbook each year since 2006, and Corporate Governance and Directors’ Duties, published by Practical Law Company; as well as numerous other publications in leading industry journals. He is a regular speaker at conferences on private equity and mergers and acquisitions in Russia, and is regularly interviewed by publications such as The Economist Intelligence Unit, International Financial Law Review and The Financial Times and has appeared on CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange Programme.

Representative Experience

• Representing KazMunaiGaz EP in its US$1 billion stapled finance acquisition of 50 percent of Nations Energy, a subsidiary of CITIC Resources, operating the Karazhanbasmunai field.
• Representing Inmarko, Russia’s leading ice cream manufacturer, and its investors, including EBRD and NORUM, on its sale to Unilever.
• Representing Moore Capital, one of the world’s top five hedge funds with more than US$18 billion under management, in its private equity investments in Russia and Ukraine including:
  • a US$50 million investment in RosEvroDevelopment, Russia’s leading national real estate developer;
  • a joint venture with Agrico Russia for the acquisition and leaseback of 100,000 hectares of farming land in Southern Russia;
  • a minority investment in Lenta, a Russian retail chain;
  • a co-investment in Rosvodokanal, a Russian water company with treatment plants in six major cities across Russia; and
  • a minority investment in Transcontainer, Russia’s largest operator of container flat cars.
• Advising Agribusiness Partners on its US$144 million exit from Chicken Kingdom, a fully integrated Russia-based producer of fresh and frozen poultry products, through a sale to OJSC Cherkizovo.
• Counseling CTC Media, a Russian owner and operator of numerous TV stations and networks, on a series of acquisitions beginning in 1995 through its
  US$380 million initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq, the largest IPO of a Russia-based business outside the commodities sector, in 2006.
• Advising on a US$300 million acquisition of a 40 percent stake in Kyivstar GSM, Ukraine’s largest mobile telecom provider.
• Advising on the US$265 million acquisition of Vredestein Banden B.V. by Amtel Tyres, one of Russia’s largest tire manufacturers, in the first fully leveraged acquisition by a Russia-based manufacturer of a Western European manufacturing concern.
• Providing counsel for two CLN offerings by Amtel totaling US$275 million and a US$150 million IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
• Representing various private equity funds including UFG Capital Partners, Alfa Capital Partners, Troika Capital Partners, Mint Capital, Barings Vostok and others in various private equity investments.