Lena Makarenko focuses on subsoil, mergers and acquisitions, project finance, capital markets and corporate law.

She has advised on governmental regulations (such as subsoil and antimonopoly), secured financings, IPOs (including pre-IPO due diligence and review of prospectus), joint ventures involving the establishment of a Kazakh legal entity, and labor issues. Lena has been recently engaged in extensive due diligence of subsurface use assets on behalf of acquirers; the targets have included a Kazakhstan LLP oil and gas explorer as well as a Kazakhstan oil and gas pipeline company.

Lena's most recent work covers participation in representing: 

• joint lead managers in the update of the US$7.5 billion Global Medium Term Note Programme of KazMunaiGaz Finance Sub B.V. and JSC National Company KazMunayGas (KMG), the Kazakh national oil and gas company; 
• Zhaikmunai L.P. in the placing of 45 million GDRs by way of a secondary offering worth US$180 million with institutional placees, together with admission to trading and listing of 150 million GDRs representing common units of Zhaikmunai L.P. on the London Stock Exchange; 
• Zhaikmunai L.P. in connection with the issuance of senior notes issued by its subsidiary, Zhaikmunai Finance B.V. (the Issuer), and guaranteed by Zhaikmunai L.P. and its subsidiaries (other than the Issuer), in an aggregate principal amount of US$450 million; 
• a Kazakhstan subsoil user (oil and gas), as borrower, and its parent group of companies, as guarantors, for a US$550 million senior secured facility; 
• a Kazakhstan subsoil user (chrome), as borrower, and its parent and affiliated companies, as guarantors, for a US$120 million secured facility; 
• a foreign bank in its proposed US$125 million financing to investors in exploration and production joint ventures in Kazakhstan; 
• a Chinese company in the acquisition of a Kazakhstan subsoil user exploring hydrocarbons in the Western Kazakhstan; 
• an international investor in the farm-in, joint venture and subsurface use contract negotiations relating to an investment in a block in the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea; 
• Oriel Resources plc in the purchase of Kazakhstan companies havings rights to nickel, cobalt and chrome deposits, including on a number of corporate, subsoil and regulatory issues related to acquisition of the referred subsoil assets in Kazakhstan, and the subsequent financing of the processing facilities; 
• a parent of a group of subsoil producers in connection with sale of its gold producing asset in Kazakhstan to a Russian investor; 
• an Australian publicly listed company in acquisition of rights in a gold project in Kazakhstan; 
• an international oil and gas producer with subsoil assets in Kazakhstan in the proposed acquisition of a strategic inter-state oil and oil products main pipeline; and 
• a major foreign bank in its establishment (registration) of a Kazakhstan subsidiary.

Bars and Courts
Qualified to practice law in Kazakhstan

Education
LLB, with honours, Adilet Higher Law School, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2007
Bachelor of Economics, The Moscow Institute of Commerce and Law, Russia, 2000
English Language Bachelor, with honours, The Kazakh State University of International Relations and World Languages, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 1998

Languages
Russian
English

Citizenship
Kazakhstan