Graham Conlon

Graham is an English-qualified Solicitor based in the Kiev office of CMS Cameron McKenna. Graham has extensive experience in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. He spent over five years working for Linklaters, most of that as part of their CEE-SEE 'flying squad', advising on several high-profile cross-border transactions, mostly (but not exclusively) for private equity clients. More recently, he lived and worked for over one year in Kazakhstan, where he became known as one of the leading expat lawyers, advising a range of premium emerging-market-focussed clients on a number of high profile acquisitions and disposals in the region. Graham has a good working knowledge of Russian, German and Romanian.

In 2011 Graham was awarded the Young Dealmaker of the Year prize by mergermarket
 

Relevant experience includes advising:

• Advised Advent International, across 7 jurisdictions, on the acquisition of Provimi Pet Food for an enterprise value of EUR 188 million 
• Royal Bank of Scotland on the sale of its retail banking business in Kazakhstan to HSBC by way of an auction
• Various shareholders/investors (including CVCI and ABN AMRO) on the acquisition and subsequent €1.6 billion disposal (the largest private equity deal in Central and South Eastern Europe at the time) of the entire issued share capital held in Mobiltel EAD (Bulgaria's largest mobile-phone provider) to Telekom Austria
• Ciments Français on the disposal of shares to, and the cross-border simultaneous acquisition of shares from, Verny Capital (one of the largest private equity investment management groups in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region) in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
• Innova Capital on the acquisition of a major stake in a leading telecommunications company, Voxtel SA, in the Republic of Moldova
• Eurasian Bank on the acquisition of Troika Dialog Bank in Russia
• On the US$250 million leveraged acquisition by two private equity sponsors, Partners in Life Sciences and Citigroup Venture Capital International, of Biofarma Illac Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. a leading Turkish generic pharmaceutical manufacturing company
• In relation to the sale of a 30% stake in UTI Group (a leading Romanian technology and defence company) to AIG Global Emerging Markets Fund II
• An Indian private equity investor on a subscription to shares (and a controlling stake) in Faces Cosmetics Plc, an AIM company

Education:

London Business School, Masters in Finance (current admit, part-time)

University of London, King’s College, Law - LLB (Hons)

Nottingham Law School, Diploma in Legal Practice