An English law qualified lawyer, Michael Copeland has advised on a wide range of M&A and corporate law issues while working for Herbert Smith in London, Singapore and Moscow. Having worked in Moscow for more than 5 years, Michael has a strong track record in advising clients on complicated Russia-related corporate, joint venture and energy transactions.

Michael has also spent time on secondment with a major international oil company both in London and Moscow working on M&A and joint venture matters.

Representative transactions include advising:

M&A:

• Sinopec on its groundbreaking USD 3.7bn acquisition of Udmurtneft, a Russian oil producer, from TNK-BP
• a Russian investment fund on the split of jointly-held assets worth US$15 billion
• an international infrastructure investment fund on its USD multimillion acquisition of an interest in an operator of heat and power generation and heat distribution facilities in St Petersburg
• a leading CIS energy group on its acquisition of coal mining companies operating in Russia
• one of the selling shareholders on the sale of a controlling interest in a major Russian fertiliser producer
• a Russian investment fund on the acquisition of a pre-IPO stake in a pharmaceutical company

JV:

• a leading Russian petrochemicals producer on its multi-million joint venture with an Indian partner
• an Asian investment fund on its joint venture with a local partner to establish a network of petrol filling stations in eastern Ukraine
• a Russian private equity fund on the consortium acquisition of a Russian mortgage bank and related shareholder arrangements
• a Japanese client on its proposed upstream joint venture with a major Russian oil company
• a Russian developer on a property joint venture with a US/European real estate fund

Michael graduated from the University of Nottingham (UK).