Corporate law, mergers and acquisitions

Comprehensive legal support for international companies expanding into Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus and developing business in new jurisdictions.

SCHNEIDER GROUP's corporate law practice experts help international companies with a wide range of issues that may arise when setting up and developing their business in a new market. Services range from an initial overview of forms of legal presence in a country, to complete legal support of all operations for legal entities, branches and representative offices, including M&As, restructuring, and business liquidation. We can assist with:

Company / legal entity registration (limited liability company, branch, representative office); preparation and submission of corresponding documents, including provision of a legal address and an interim General Director for registration purposes
Creation of joint ventures, including the development of agreements on the exercise of the rights of company members and shareholder agreements
Legal support for local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, according to both local and international legal requirements
Legal checks and support during the acquisition of stakes / shares in local companies
Transaction approvals by anti-monopoly authorities
Company restructuring support
Change of General Director
Change of legal address
Support for meetings of members / shareholders and board meetings; corporate record-keeping and documentation
Corporate approval of major deals and interested-party transactions
Arranging additional company financing
Liquidation of limited liability companies, branches or representative offices
Deregistration for tax purposes, in pension and social insurance funds

Natalia Wilke

Partner, Legal, General Director, St. Petersburg, Russia

Natalia is SCHNEIDER GROUP Partner and General Director of the St. Petersburg office. She is a lawyer with more than 20 years of practical experience in legal consulting. Natalia provides tailored-made, practically-oriented legal solutions in establishing and managing subsidiaries of international businesses in Russia, manufacturing localisation, compliance, acquisition of real estate, as well as corporate and labour law. Natalia speaks Russian, German and English, and has a basic knowledge of French.

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Dr. Thomas Mundry

Partner, Legal, Tax, Moscow, Russia

Thomas joined the company in 2019 as Partner for legal and tax. Thomas is a German lawyer, ranked among top lawyers in franchising and is regularly included into the “Best Lawyers in Russia” rating. He specializes in manufacturing localization (greenfield & brownfield), joint ventures, M&A, franchising & distribution, bankruptcy and restructuring. Thomas advises businesses from a wide range of industries, including machinery, construction and engineering, automotive, logistics, chemicals, mining, energy and utilities, pharmaceuticals, food, real estate, agriculture, fashion, and IT. Prior to joining SCHNEIDER GROUP, he was Partner in the international law firm Noerr. He holds a doctorate in Law from Freie Universität Berlin. Thomas speaks German, English and Russian.

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Anna Afanasyeva

Associate Director, Legal & Tax, St. Petersburg, Russia

Anna joined SCHNEIDER GROUP St. Petersburg office in 2020. She has more than 10 years of professional experience at the international law firms. Anna is a leading legal advisor in St. Petersburg. She specialises in financial and tax planning and provides legal support in manufacturing and real estate investment projects, manufacturing localisation, and infrastructure projects. She advises SCHNEIDER GROUP’s customers on customs law, IT regulations, foreign trade and financing, M&A, and international legal agreements. For many years, Anna has been heading the legal & tax committee of the Association of European Businesses (AEB) in St. Petersburg. She participates in the tax and financial reporting committee of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (AHK). Anna graduated with a degree in Law from St. Petersburg University.

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Alexander Titov

Director, Legal & Tax , Moscow, Russia

Alexander joined the company in 2021. He has more than 25 years of professional experience and specializes in advising international companies on joint ventures, restructuring, M&A, and executive dispute resolution. Companies from a wide range of industries, such as machinery, engineering, automotive, pharma, chemicals, food, consumer goods, professional services, fashion and retail rely on Alexander’s expertise. Alexander graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University with a degree in Translation; a degree in Law from Lomonosov Moscow State University; a master's degree in Law from the University of Konstanz (Germany). He speaks Russian, German and English.

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Sergey Odintsov

Head of Legal & Tax Practice

Belarus

Sergey provides legal and tax advice to Belarusian and international businesses. He focuses on corporate and commercial law, taxation, business setup and restructuring, as well as investment projects and supports company clients in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining SCHNEIDER GROUP, Sergey worked for one of the Big Four companies in Belarus, where he gained significant experience in legal advice for clients in various industries, including construction, oil and gas, logistics and transportation, retail, pharmaceuticals and IT. Since 2006, Sergey has been collaborating with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank on the “Doing Business in...” project. Sergey has more than 15 years of professional experience. He is a licensed lawyer and tax consultant. Sergey speaks Russian, Belarusian and English.

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Alina Kozmina

Legal Counsel, Corporate Law Practice, Moscow, Russia

Alina joined the company in 2017 as associate. She was promoted to senior lawyer in 2018 and to legal counsel of the corporate law practice in 2021. With almost 10 years of professional experience, Alina specializes in supporting foreign investors in Russia, corporate governance and M&A projects. In 2021, Alina was included into the “Best Lawyers in Russia” rating in the M&A category. Alina graduated from St. Petersburg University with a degree in Law and studied European Private Law at the University of Salzburg (Austria).

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Sergey Bogatyrev

Legal Counsel

Sergey joined SCHNEIDER GROUP’s St. Petersburg office in 2021 as senior associate. Previously he worked as an associate and senior associate for Beiten Burkhardt, a German law firm, for 12 years. Sergey has more than 17 years of professional experience. He specializes in corporate law, joint ventures, legal regulation of construction (including city-planning regulations) and bankruptcy law. Sergey has extensive experience in M&A and greenfield & brownfield localization projects for both domestic and international businesses. He also represents SCHNEIDER GROUP clients in Russian state courts. Sergey graduated from St Petersburg University with a degree in Law.

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Success stories

Doppelmayr

Subsidiary incorporation

SCHNEIDER GROUP registered a Russian subsidiary for Doppelmayr and provided an interim General Director for the purpose of company incorporation and administrating in accordance with head office’s instructions. The interim General Director represented the customer before public authorities and managed customs and tax declarations in close collaboration with the parent company.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer

Expanding into new markets

We assisted a German pharmaceutical company in establishing a subsidiary in Russia, including opening bank accounts, hiring four employees, subleasing fully equipped office space and providing a temporary General Director, among other tasks.

German pharmaceutical manufacturer

Interim administration of Russian representative office

We completed tax due diligence on a German pharmaceutical manufacturer's representative office in Russia to identify accounting risks, took over management of the representative office until it was wound up, incorporated the office into a local subsidiary, formalised employee transfers from the representative office to the subsidiary and arranged the office’s winding-up process.

Mankenberg

From Employer of record to company incorporation

MANKENBERG aimed to expand to the Russian and CIS markets. To give MANKENBERG the opportunity to test the market without significant investment, we hired an employee on behalf of the company. The employee was provided with a fully-equipped workspace in our office with secretarial and administrative support.

All success stories

Why Schneider group

COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH

We take your business objectives into account and design solutions to suit your needs. The project team includes a corporate law expert, as well as consultants from related law areas. Representatives from other departments (tax, finance, export and import) are on call if required to fully assess risks and offer practical solutions.

MULTINATIONAL LEGAL TEAM

Our legal experts boast many years of professional experience in cross-cultural environments. Both the company and individual experts are often included in local and international legal ratings. Together, the three partners leading our legal and tax practice have more than 65 years of professional experience.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

We actively support the everyday activities of legal committees from leading international business associations and have an extensive partner network around the globe. We offer our customers practical solutions that comply fully with both local legal requirements and head office interests.

LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIP

We consider high quality legal support to be a crucial step towards your long-term success in a new market. We at SCHNEIDER GROUP specialise in the outsourcing of non-core business functions, such as accounting, payroll calculations and HR administration, so we are interested in long-term collaboration with our clients.