Kyiv - DLA Piper Ukraine advised Europe Virgin Fund (EVF), a private equity fund sponsored by Dragon Capital in their acquisition of the controlling stake in Portmone.com, the leading Ukrainian system of online payments.

DLA Piper provided full legal support to the transaction, including drafting and negotiating transactional documents, support of closing of the deal.

DLA Piper team was led by Legal Director Illya Muchnyk under the general supervision of Managing Partner Margarita Karpenko. The significant input was provided by Associates Dmytro Pshenychnyuk of the Finance & Projects and Dmytro Tkachenko of Corporate Law practice.

While commenting the deal closing Illya Muchnyk noted: "We have been pleased to provide the legal support to our client in another their successful investment. This transaction is the first acquisition of an operator of online payments by an investment fund in Ukraine".

'With our investment we intend to set a new impulse for the development of the company. The prior focus we see on attracting new clients, design of new services, as well as making the system user-friendly' as Andrey Nosok, managing director of private equity department, commented.

DLA Piper has already had a successful experience supporting EVF investments. In particular, in 2011 DLA Piper advised EVF on its investment into Prime Group, a leading Ukrainian outdoor advertising operator. Later in 2012 the fund became an investor in a pharmaceutical company Sperkounder the legal support of DLA Piper.