Ioana Racoți

Ioana Racoți, Senior Partner and founder of ZRVP, heads the Energy & Natural Resources, Banking & Finance and Capital Markets departments. A seasoned business lawyer, Ioana belongs to the group of professionals that pioneered the world of business law in Romania back in 1995. High-profile mergers and acquisitions deals and privatization projects propelled her to the international elite of the legal profession. Since then, she has been growing long-lasting business partnerships with clients from different industries, providing trusted legal counsel for over 25 years in multibillion-dollar projects.

Ioana is a leading corporate finance lawyer, assisting financial institutions and borrowers – public and private companies, in complex loan transactions, syndicated facilities, creation and perfection of guarantees and securities, and multijurisdictional project financings. Ioana has led transactions in various sectors including energy & natural resources, financial services, aviation, transport, construction, real estate and telecommunications.

An expert in cross-border transactions, negotiated acquisitions and spin-offs, Ioana also specializes in all aspects of capital markets law, including company listing and de-listing and private placements. Her considerable experience extends to advising securities issuers and underwriters in IPOs and various other transactions on the Bucharest and London stock exchange.

Ioana boasts a broad experience in the oil and gas industry, working across the power, water, infrastructure, mining, oil and gas, petrochemicals, renewables and nuclear sectors since the beginning of her legal career. She has an impressive track record in advising energy companies seeking to operate, acquire or develop projects in Romania. Clients from backgrounds as diverse as gas distribution, thermoelectricity supply and energy storage seek out her representation.

Ioana acts for clients in all energy matters, including development of energy projects, power plant acquisition transactions, privatization of public energy companies, distribution of energy and natural resources and due diligence investigations, green and brownfield projects. Ioana advises on investment strategy, regulatory issues, project finance – supported by her extensive banking expertise, competition and contract law.

Having significant experience in the procedures related to authorizing and licensing in the field of natural gas and in the energy sector, Ioana is also actively involved in the legislation process in the energy field in Romania, carrying out negotiations in representation of big industrial energy consumers, with ANRE (Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority), the Ministry of Energy, the Competition Council, the European Commission, regarding initiating, supporting and promoting projects to amend the applicable legislation in force and regulatory framework in the energy area.

Ioana played an integral role in the privatization processes of Romanian companies acting in the energy field and has assisted financial institutions and project developers to reach solutions satisfying often disparate requirements among project participants.