Sayenko Kharenko antitrust team has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) on obtaining merger clearance in Ukraine for its USD 69.1 billion acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) from the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. On 17 June 2020, Saudi Aramco announced the successful completion of the transaction.

Sayenko Kharenko antitrust team has succeeded in proving to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine that a combination of the parties’ activities would not lead to the significant market increments and managed to demonstrate the absence of any competition concerns resulting from the deal. The above allowed to achieve a smooth-running review process and timely merger control clearance of the transaction.

Saudi Aramco, headquartered in the city of Dhahran, is one of the world’s largest integrated oil and gas companies; its Upstream operations are based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it also operates a global Downstream business.

SABIC is a global leader in diversified chemicals headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It manufactures on a global scale in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, making distinctly different kinds of products: chemicals, commodity and high performance plastics, agri-nutrients and metals.

Sayenko Kharenko antitrust team advising on the project included senior associate Anastasia Bodnar and associate Snizhanna Savka, and was led by partner Valentyna Hvozd.