Considering the growing and shared interest of Turkey and Belarus in developing and strengthening relations in various sectors, attracting foreign investors and conducting joint projects of mutual interest, Ketenci Law Firm (“Ketenci”) has taken the lead to establish its presence in Belarus to serve as a “bridge” linking the businesses of the two countries as of June 2015.

Belarus is not the only country that Ketenci is internationally present in. Being an Istanbul based law firm since 1989, Ketenci has also its offices in Moscow and Baku. Primarily focused on the CIS countries, Ketenci provides legal services to both Turkish and international clients, and acts as an official program partner of Borsa Istanbul in Belarus, Russia and Azerbaijan. Ketenci has a team of more than 30 lawyers and several international legal counsels. Ketenci aims at providing extensive and qualified professional assistance and legal support to businessmen who are present or wish to establish trade and economic activities in Turkey and/or Belarus.

We believe that our office in Minsk is to the benefit of all the parties with existing/potential business activities in Turkey and Belarus, and will attract more investors with the view to implementing successful projects in Turkey and Belarus, as well as in other CIS countries.

Ketenci Law Firm provides professional legal support to its clients operating in various sectors such as textiles, construction, chemicals, automotive and energy. Our legal services mainly cover the following:

• Company (branch, representative office, joint venture) incorporation and winding up, technical bankruptcy, structuring and restructuring;

• Legal due diligence and risk determination;

• Obtaining various permits, approvals and licenses;

• Legal support throughout the process of conclusion and implementation of Investment Agreements;

• Preparation, assessment, negotiation and amendment of (international) commercial contracts; settlement of disputes that arise out of non-performance of contracts; debt recovery;

• Legal counseling throughout the entire (cross-border) merger and acquisition process - from the first planning stage until the closing and post-closing of transactions;

• Evaluation of domestic and cross border merger & acquisition transactions from a competition law perspective;

• Multijurisdictional merger control formalities (preliminary assessment, preparation and submission of notifications to the Competition Authority(s));

• Competition law compliance programs; support in antitrust investigations/ dawn raids;

• Legal assistance on issues of cross-border transactions and international finance including project financings, acquisition financings, banking and derivatives in Turkey and abroad;

• Legal advice to financial institutions, investment banks, intermediary institutions and issuers on securities transactions, IPOs, bond offerings, privatizations, international capital markets and structured products in Turkey and abroad;

• Conduct direct negotiations with Borsa Istanbul, the Capital Markets Board and other relevant governmental authorities with the aim of concluding capital markets transactions in Turkey;

• Review of tender specifications issued by tendering authorities for compliance with relevant legislation; providing legal opinion at pre-award and post-award stages of a tender;

• National and international dispute resolution in the framework of international purchase-sale agreements, mergers & acquisitions, investment disputes; intellectual property rights disputes;

• Institutional and ad hoc arbitration proceedings;

• Conciliation and mediation