Sayenko Kharenko advises EBRD on USD 100 million loan to Novus Group

Sayenko Kharenko has acted as legal counsel to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on providing a USD 100 million secured financing package to Novus Group (Novus), one of the major Ukraine’s food retailers.

The financing will facilitate the construction or refurbishment of more than 30 new Novus stores by the end of 2022, which will almost double the total number of the retailer’s supermarkets across Ukraine.

Novus will also use the funds to build the first green distribution centre – a state-of-the-art logistics facility for the construction of environmentally sustainable buildings.

Novus is a multi-format Ukrainian food retailer with a workforce of more than 5,500 employees. It operates a chain of stores with a total gross area of more than 220,000 square metres. Since the launch of the business in 2009, Novus has focused on offering the highest retail standards to customers across the country.

The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. Since the start of its operations in the country in 1993, the Bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 14.4 billion in 476 projects throughout the country.

Sayenko Kharenko’s team was led by partner Igor Lozenko and included associates Denis Nakonechnyi, Vladyslava Mitsai and Vira Pankiv and junior associate Oleksandr Motin.