This was the first public event, held by Noerr LLP, which was explicitly dedicated to venture capital investments; in Europe, the company has long and successfully supported venture capital transactions and is now trying to establish such work in Russia.
In his opening speech, Mr. Suren Vardanyan, the Vice President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry has always supported initiatives for such meetings. "It is important to have an opportunity to openly discuss existing problems, to understand what are the ways to solve them, and maybe to identify new ones. In my opinion, the topic of venture capital investment for Russia is relevant, but has been neither divulged nor clarified yet.
“The number of grey areas contained in this issue is voluminous.” Mr. Vardanyan said. He wished the participants of the event to find positive solutions, and on the part of the MCCI he promised further support for holding such business breakfasts. He also offered to hold them at the Chamber's site, and "to expand their attendance.”
The first part of the event was dedicated to the main trends of venture capital transactions in Europe. Mr. Felix Blobel, a lawyer for the Private Equity / Venture Capital, said that the European market of venture capital is growing primarily due to the amount of executed transactions. "We have accumulated considerable experience. Approximately 70% of our transactions are cross-border: these are investments by foreign entrepreneurs in German companies or German companies abroad.
That is the reason I share with you some important points of our practice.” The audience was intrigued. He then went on to say that Noerr LLP is a firm that operates primarily in large capital markets: "We prefer complex transactions and deals, where we can show our creativity, attract data protection specialists and not just deal with corporate finance.” He then shared statistics on venture capital and venture investments in Europe over the past year. According to these data, the investment business in Europe is on the rise. Its total volume was about 36 billion dollars. Compared to 2015, these figures have increased by approximately five times.
Mr. Vyacheslav Yugay, a partner of Noerr LLP Russia, the Head of Corporate and M&A Practice in Russia, spoke about peculiarities of structuring venture transactions under the auspices of Russian legislation. He shared his work experience and recounted the most pressing problems of the last year, which caused a lively discussion in professional circles.
"There are no guarantees in Russia, only assurances. And the business code defines them clearly enough in about the same way as it exists in more advanced jurisdictions," said Mr. Yugay. The main consequence of the breach of assurances is the possibility of the affected party to withdraw from the contract (unless otherwise provided by the agreement of the parties). Insurance against such situations in America has existed for a long time; in Europe insurance is also gaining momentum. In Russia, there is nothing of the kind for high-risk investments so far.
"We deal with the largest insurance companies, trying to promote this topic so that we too, in Russia, have risk insurance "for violation of assurances and warranties. Maybe one of you will join us in this discussion with insurance companies. Because there exists a market and insurance companies can earn a lot of money, and investors will also receive compensation," said Mr. Yugay.
The last part of the event dealt with Noerr LLP's application of legal mechanisms in conducting transactions. In particular, how artificial intelligence is used in supporting venture transactions.