News Release
Latham & Watkins Bolsters Capital Markets Practice in Moscow with Prominent Hire
Ambition to be Europe's leading capital markets practice strengthened with addition of Russian capital markets leader
Moscow, October 2, 2007... Latham & Watkins LLP is pleased to announce that Mark Banovich has joined the firm as a partner in the Corporate Department resident in Moscow, where he will also assume the role of Managing Partner for the firm's Moscow office. Banovich has a strong underwriter practice, handling equity and debt capital markets transactions for leading investment banks in Russia. He has represented issuers and depositaries in public and private securities offerings in the US and European capital markets. Banovich also advises on corporate governance and compliance issues under the US securities laws. As a complement to his capital markets focus, he has also worked on cross-border investment fund structuring and public M&A and private equity transactions.
Latham & Watkins' Russian practice has a strong track record advising on IPOs, high yield debt offerings, America Depository Receipts (ADRs) and Eurobonds, with a deal list that includes some of the largest and most significant listings by Russian companies in the US and European capital markets. In Thomson Financial's first half 2007 EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) Legal Advisers league tables, Latham & Watkins placed #1 representing Issuers in the EMEA IPO category by value of deals, #2 representing Issuers in the EMEA Equity & Equity Related category by value of deals, and #2 representing Issuers in EMEA Common Stock by value of deals.
Latham & Watkins has acted as lead counsel on many of the high profile Russian capital markets deals completed in recent years, including: representing VTB, Russia's second largest bank, in its $8 billion IPO on the London Stock Exchange, which was one of the world's largest IPOs in 2007; advising Sitronics, a leading Russian technology provider and first major international company to join the London Stock Exchange's Main Market in 2007, in connection with its $402 million IPO of 1.675 billion ordinary shares and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs); advising COMSTAR United Telesystems, a leading provider of Russian integrated communications services, in its $1.06 billion 2006 IPO of 146,500,000 Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange; among others.
"As an experienced capital markets lawyer, with an outstanding reputation in the Russian market, Mark's arrival further reinforces our European stature as one of the pre-eminent capital markets firms," said David Miles, member of the Latham & Watkins Executive Committee. "Mark is an excellent addition to our capital markets team, who brings first-class experience, judgment, and market standing that will be of tremendous service to our clients."
John Watson, Vice Chair of the Global Corporate Department, said: "Mark's track record advising on complex issuer- and underwriter-side transactions in Russia will be a tremendous boost to our pan-European corporate finance ambitions. Mark's energy and entrepreneurial spirit are additional fuel for the momentum we are building in Europe."
"Latham & Watkins has established an excellent capital markets platform, with premier credentials in every major financial market in the world. Latham's global footprint is very attractive. I look forward to being part of its continued success in Moscow and Europe generally," said Banovich.
Banovich joins from the Moscow office of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP. He earned his AB in Economics (magna cum laude) from Princeton University in 1992 and received his JD from Cornell Law School in 1995 where he served as Articles Editor of the Cornell Law Review and was also a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1996.
About Latham & Watkins
Latham & Watkins is a global law firm with more than 1,900 attorneys in 24 offices, including Barcelona, Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich, New Jersey, New York, Northern Virginia, Orange County, Paris, San Diego, San Francisco, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. For more information on Latham & Watkins, please visit the Web site at www.lw.com.
Notes to Editor
Latham & Watkins operates as a limited liability partnership worldwide with an affiliated limited liability partnership conducting the practice in the United Kingdom and Italy.
Contacts
David Miles, member of the Executive Committee, +44.20.7710.1011
John Watson, Vice Chair of the Global Corporate Department, +33.1.40.62.21.88
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