Areas of Practice
Christia-Lydia Kastellani joined the firm in December 2014 and is a Senior Associate in the firm’s corporate and commercial department. She focuses on wide-ranging corporate and cross-border transactions, M&A, restructures, banking and secured financing and general corporate law. She works with, and advises mainly international clients, including banking institutions and multinational corporations in a variety of industries and service sectors. Christia-Lydia has dealt with joint venture, cross-border restructuring and acquisition transactions, advising on or drafting share purchase and joint venture agreements, amendment of constitutional documents, escrow and other ancillary agreements. She has also worked on several due diligence reviews of Cypriot target companies and issued due diligence reports or legal capacity opinions. At the same time, she routinely advises clients on the incorporation and everyday management of companies. Her practice also includes cross-border secured financings in the context of which she normally drafts or reviews facility and security documents and prepares and issues legal opinions, participates in closing meetings and oversees the collection of the conditions precedent or subsequent and the perfection and registration of Cypriot law governed securities.
The Legal 500 has highlighted Christia-Lydia as a “key lawyer” for Banking and Finance. In testimonials she has been described as “technically strong and on top of her matters” and as having “deep market knowledge and business understanding.”
Admitted
- Cyprus Bar Association (2014)
Education
- Legal Practice Course, University of Law, London
- LLB, University College London
Languages
- Greek
- English
- French (basic)
Areas of Practice
Christia-Lydia regularly participates in cross-border secured and syndicated financing transactions across various industries, advising banks or other financial institutions, security agents or borrowers alike. In this context, she inter alia reviews foreign law governed facility documents in order to advise on the Cyprus law requirements relevant to Cypriot borrowers or guarantors as well as the Cypriot security package to be agreed, she drafts and reviews security agreements and assists with closing, perfection requirements, security registration and other items on the post-closing agenda. She acts and issues legal opinions for numerous banks many of which entrust the firm with repeat work. Examples of the multifaceted transactions Christia-Lydia has recently worked on include high value financings and re-financings, where the preparation of release documentation for the simultaneous release of existing securities was necessary, such as advising a bank taking over the credit facility provided to a corporation in the technologies sector where our firm extensively negotiated the Cyprus law governed securities to be given by the corporation’s numerous Cypriot subsidiaries. She has also recently assisted one of our firm’s clients active in the pharmaceutical industry with a multi-billion USD refinancing and private offering of notes on the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission with an aggregate principal amount of USD 300 million.
Cross Border Transactions, M&A & Restructures
Christia-Lydia is regularly dealing with cross-border transactions, advising on, drafting and reviewing joint venture agreements and purchase agreements, dealing with complex amendments in the Articles of Association of the Cyprus target entity in an effort to safeguard the clients’ interests in such joint venture projects and generally drafting any requisite ancillary agreements or documents. She has recently been involved in a large restructuring project of an emerging global coking coal leader relating to two coal mining tenements, assisting with the review of the share purchase or subscription agreements, shareholders agreements and other transactional documentation between the joint venture partners as well the amendment of the Articles of Association of the Cyprus companies. Earlier examples of her work in this practice area include the representation of a well-known multinational electronic products manufacturer in a multijurisdictional deal whereby it acquired a majority stake in an entity belonging to a leading manufacturer of consumer electronics. This involved the performance of an extensive legal due diligence of the target as well as the preparation and review of documentation for the acquisition, both by subscription of shares and share purchase. Christia-Lydia also deals with local and cross-border mergers and has completed a number of transfers of seat of companies previously registered in a number of different jurisdictions to Cyprus as well as of Cyprus companies transferring their seat abroad.
Christia-Lydia routinely advises clients on the full range of matters relating to Cyprus companies, from incorporation and everyday management to dissolutions. She has been involved in the due diligence of a number of Cyprus companies performed prior to, and as a condition to their proposed acquisition including of companies active in the pharmaceutical, agricultural and commodities markets, in the provision of multinational professional services as well as in the onshore drilling sector. In this context, she has carried out extensive due diligence reviews of documents uploaded through virtual data rooms, she has drafted either comprehensive or red-flag reports and has provided parallel advice regarding suggested actions to be taken by the clients prior to the closing of the proposed deals, the conditions precedent and subsequent as well as specific warranties and indemnities to be incorporated in the share purchase agreements tailored to address the findings of the due diligence review. Notable examples of her work include the multi-million USD investment in a Cyprus company in the tertiary education field affiliated with the largest private university in Cyprus and the due diligence of 14 Cyprus private companies belonging to a large global group of corporate service providers on behalf of a well established international professional service provider contemplating their acquisition. In the latter case, the due diligence report was extended to cover in addition to the corporate and commercial aspects, finance, intellectual property and data protection matters as well as employment law. Christia-Lydia is also experienced in drafting court applications whenever a court order is required to approve a corporate action such as a merger or a reduction of share capital.
Christia-Lydia has gained considerable experience in energy finance through her work on various multijurisdictional transactions and projects in the energy and oil and gas fields. She has represented and advised major banks and financial institutions on oil and gas upstream debt financings and restructurings, syndicated banks lending as well as acquisition financings and reserve-based lending. She reviews and advises on the financing and security documentation and together with other members of the firm provides legal support to clients in challenging transactions in the field. Between 2017-2021, Christia-Lydia advised a syndicate of lenders led by 4 major international banks throughout the whole lifecycle of a multi-billion senior credit facility provided to an oil & gas independent E&P leader int he Eastern Mediterranean region for the development of Israeli gas fields. She has also advised multinational lenders in a multi-million facility for a London-based oil & gas company.
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