Sayenko Kharenko has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) in connection with Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) financing equivalent to EUR 10 million to Public Joint Stock Company "Kredobank" (Kredobank), a Ukrainian subsidiary of Poland's largest bank – PKO Bank Polski S.A.

The transaction included the purchase of UAH 250 million local corporate bonds of Kredobank, which makes it the largest non-government bond investment in Ukraine in 2018. Kredobank will use the proceeds to offer longer-term local currency financing to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Ukraine.

Counsel Igor Lozenko comments: "This transaction is remarkable as it is one of the few on the Ukrainian market recently where a foreign investor used local law non-government debt instruments. We are pleased that Sayenko Kharenko has contributed to the expansion of the EFSE's operations in Ukraine".

The EFSE is a privately managed development finance fund initiated by KfW Development Bank with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission. The EFSE uses capital provided by donor agencies, international financial institutions and private institutional investors to finance MSEs in the target region, which includes Ukraine.

Sayenko Kharenko`s team advising on the project was led by counsel Igor Lozenko and included associates Dmytro Vasylyna, Denis Nakonechnyi, Yuri Dmytrenko and junior associate Oleksandra Maksymenko.

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