Law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel has promoted Grigory Marinichev to full partner at its Moscow office.

Marinichev is responsible for heading the firm’s Russian banking and finance practice, dealing with banks, financial institutions and corporates, among other entities.

“When Gide first came to Russia, the firm advised foreign companies and banks doing business in Russia, but now the situation has changed. The last few years have shown that Russian blue chip companies can be very good clients so one of my first priorities will be to develop the Russian client base,” Marinichev tells GTR.

“My other top priorities are to continue the extension of the team in Moscow and to further develop networking and communication between Gide offices globally,” he adds.

Marinichev joined the firm in 2004, and was made a local partner in January 2009.

Before working at Gide, he served as an associate at Baker and McKenzie’s Moscow office.

“The last few years have shown that Russian blue chip companies can be very good clients.”

He specialises in structured finance, secured lending, restructuring and insolvency across the metals and mining, telecoms, oil and gas, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Some of the key deals that Marinichev has worked on include acting for metals company Mechel in refinancing US$2.6bn of debt for the acquisition of Yukutogol and Oriel Resources in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

“Gide completed the Mechel restructuring. This was the first completed large-scale restructuring in Russia, and this along with a few more insolvencies helped us to show how well Gide handles these big projects,” Marinichev notes.

He also acted for a syndicate of banks, including ING, Natixis and Commerzbank, on a GTR Deal of the Year 2007 award-winning transaction.

The deal saw an R2.8bn (US$91.9mn) limited recourse facility signed for metal trader ZAO Profit.

The facility was the first of its kind, and used an innovative structure to secure the loan through the assignment of local receivables under a contract for ferrous scrap delivery, and documented under Russian law.