Asters Strengthens Its Real Estate and Natural Resources Team with Partner Promotion

>Asters has increased the strength of its Real Estate and Natural Resources practices by promoting the firm's senior associate Roman Kostenko to partner with effect as of January 2009. This promotion brings the total number of partners to 10, with 70 lawyers in all.

Roman Kostenko joined Asters in 2003 and has been a member of the firm’s Real Estate and Natural Resources Practice Groups. Mr. Kostenko has extensive experience in real estate acquisition and finance, development and construction. His area of legal expertise also includes oil & gas sectors, including corporate acquisitions and establishment of joint ventures in this industry.

The new partner was featured in Chambers Europe 2008. Europe’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2008 as one of the recommended practitioners for real estate in Ukraine who draws praise from clients for delivering "practical advice based on sound legal reasoning and hands-on experience".

Roman Kostenko’s transactional record includes advising Eurasia Group, a major Kazakh investor, on the USD 100 million acquisition refinancing and in connection with acquisition of various development sites in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region; Citigroup Global Markets and Merrill Lynch in connection with USD 368 million secured financing to a group of companies, including the software department of Flextronics International Ltd; a major Austrian bank in a cross-border development financing; a US investment fund on a USD 190 million acquisition of several land plots for greenfield warehouse development in the Kyiv Region; an international shipping company in connection with the development of a container terminal on the Black Sea shore; a multinational oil and energy company and a global gas management and utilisation company in connection with their activities in Ukraine.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Kostenko worked as a corporate lawyer at Tebodin Ukraine, a major Netherlands-based consulting and engineering company, where he provided legal advice with respect to engineering, industrial construction and procurement projects. He received his Master’s Degree in Law from the Kyiv National University of Economy.

Commenting on the appointment, Asters’ Managing Partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy said: "Roman is a very capable lawyer with a proven track record of achieving numerous business results with Asters and this promotion is a natural progression for him. His appointment reflects our commitment to our clients in the real estate and natural resources sectors ensuring that we are leading the way in developing growing and promising practices".

Roman Kostenko added: "It is a great honor for me to become a partner especially during these challenging economic times. I am confident that my expertise and dynamic clientele will provide a strong platform for our team and for Asters to make further progress".