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Greenberg Traurig has advised Alior Bank on the acquisition of Meritum Bank for PLN 352.5 million (approximately EUR 84.5 million). The purchase agreement was signed on October 20th, 2014.

Greenberg Traurig handled the acquisition and advised on all aspects, as well as on all issues related to the financing through an issuance of new shares. The transaction will be completed once the relevant regulatory consents and approvals are obtained.

The transaction was handled by a team from the Warsaw Office of Greenberg Traurig led by Senior Partner Lejb Fogelman. Partner Radoslaw Gronet supervised the transaction and Partner Lukasz Pawlak supervised the banking and regulatory part of the deal. They were assisted by Associates Karolina Kubik, Agata Jakubczak, Maciej Kacymirow, Mateusz Zalenskim and Tomasz Denko. 

Greenberg Traurig claims to have “advised in the most important transactions in the banking sector in Poland” over the past year, including on PKO BP’s 2013 acquisition of Nordea Polska and on BNP Paribas’s acquisition of Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej.

Fellner Wratzfeld & Partners has announced that lawyers Tanja Melber and Georg Huber have joined the firm as Junior Partners. 

   

Tanja Melber and Georg Huber (fwp.at)

The two bring additional expertise in litigation and arbitration, real estate law, banking & finance, commercial and company law to FWP.

Tanja Melber has law degrees from Vienna University and an LL.M. from Pennsylvania State University in the United States. According to FWP, “she gained experience working both as an attorney and with an international bank, specializing in banking & finance as well as commercial and company law.” She joined the firm from Sberbank.

Georg Huber also obtained his law degree from the University of Vienna, then “worked for international business law firms specializing in project management.” The firm describes him as “an expert in litigation & arbitration, corporate M&A, and real estate law.” Previously, Huber worked for Doralt Seist Csoklich.

According to FWP Partner Markus Fellner, “FWP stands for excellent and long-term-effect client counseling. That is why it is crucial for us that our lawyers come not only with a comprehensive legal education, but also with a high degree of business expertise. Tanja Melber and Georg Huber, two top-of-the-range lawyers with excellent know-how, are a welcome addition to our team both in terms of expertise and personality.”

TaylorWessing e|n|w|c has advised Constellation Capital regarding the disposal of its majority stake in ibis acam group to Quadriga Capital.

The ibis acam group is one of the leading private service providers in the education sector in Austria and Germany with a focus on occupational education and training of adults, youth, and school graduates. TaylorWessing e|n|w|c had previously supported Constellation Capital in connection with its acquisition of the participation in ibis acam group as well as add-on investments.

Established in 1992, Constellation Capital is a privately owned investment company headquartered in Switzerland. It advises private investors, family offices, and institutional investors with their investments in private equity. Constellation is focused exclusively on investments in service companies in German-speaking Europe and invests in the Education & Lifestyle, Business Services, Healthcare, and Financial Services sectors.

The team at TaylorWessing e|n|w|c advising Constellation Capital on the sale of its stake consisted of Partners Raimund Cancola, Philip Hoflehner, Wolfgang Kapek, Alexander Scheitz, Martin Eckel, and Harald Czermak, Senior Associate Thomas Kienbauer, and Associates Manuel Mullner and David Konrath. 

Hoflehner said of the deal that: “We are particularly pleased that we were given the opportunity to advise Constellation in connection with the successful exit as we were already involved in the acquisition process and were further involved throughout the investment period.“

Sorainen’s Latvia office has advised IDEAL-Trade Service in a dispute with a Latvian contracting partner.

IDEAL is a Czech supplier of technological equipment and chemicals for surface treatment, compressors, and other ancillary products and services. After a year-long negotiation, Sorainen reports that it “managed to reach an agreement with the debtor by concluding a settlement agreement … through a form of notarial act, thus benefiting from the new procedure under the Civil Law, the Civil Procedure Law, and the Notary Law (in force since end of 2013) that in case of non-fulfillment allows [for the] transfer of obligations to a bailiff for enforcement without being brought to court and significantly saves litigation costs and time.”

IDEAL was advised by Sorainen Partner Agris Repss and associate Valts Nerets. 

On October 20, 2014, the Sojka & Maciak and Mataczynski Dybinski Krzeien law firms merged, creating the new 60-lawyer SMM Legal — self-described as “one of the largest Polish law firms providing comprehensive legal services.”

According to a statement released by SMM Legal: “The goal of the merger was to create a new, stronger entity that would bring together both firms’ knowledge of local markets, establishing a strong office in Warsaw and creating a new kind of legal services provider operating in a non-standard and competitive manner in comparison to the model often used by large, network law firms. But despite its scale, SMM Legal … still operates according to a concrete policy of individually tailoring its services to each client’s needs.”

Alrud has provided legal services to the Vi Holding industrial and investment group — a member of a consortium established with the Russian Rostech and Vnesheconombank companies for development of the Darwendale platinum deposit in Zimbabwe.

On September 16, 2014 the Governments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Zimbabwe entered into a cooperation agreement for implementation of the Darwendale project. Capital investment in the project is estimated to total as much as USD 3 billion.

Alrud advised Vi Holding on different corporate, financial, and commercial issues, including the acquisition of an interest in a joint venture in Zimbabwe and regulation of the relationship with the local partner, the financing of the project from Vnesheconombank, the execution of a bilateral agreement between the Governments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and other on-going issues related to project implementation (including service and construction agreements).

According to Alrud, the firm’s team was led by Senior Associate Andrey Zharskiy, assisted by Associates Sergey Khanaev and Yulia Petrakova.

Kochanski Zieba Rapala & Partners Law Firm has achieved a victory in the Warsaw Court of Appeal for the editors-in-chief of the daily “Fakt” newspaper and its website Fakt.pl against the General Inspectorate for Road Transport in Poland.

On October 14, 2014, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw dismissed an appeal made by the General Inspectorate of Road Transport to the lower courts judgment in a case brought against the editors-in-chief of the daily “Fakt” tabloid newspaper and the editors-in-chief of its accompanying website, fakt.pl. In doing so, according to KZR&P, the Court “recognized that the Judgment issued by the court of first instance corresponds with law.”

The General Inspectorate of Road Transport had demanded that the the Regional Court’s judgment be overturned and that an order be made for the publication of a “rectification” of articles published in the Fakt newspaper and website in December 2012 entitled: “They tell us to impose fines,” “Imposing fines as piecework,” and “A secret order: the more fines imposed, the higher the salaries.” Those articles revealed that road transport inspectors’ salary was dependent on the number of imposed fines, the number of penalties distributed, and the number of confiscated vehicle registration cards.  

KZR&P asserts that the judgment of the Court of Appeal dismissing the appeal in its entirety is final. KZR&P attorneys Tobiasz Szychowski and Konrad Orlik led the team representing the Ringier Axel Springer Polska publishing house.

Sorainen’s Lithuania office has advised the ECE group, an Austrian investor, on the sale of the TRIO business center through a share deal. The center was acquired by the Nordic and Baltic Property Group, a Swedish investor.

The TRIO business center is a contemporary set of offices for lease, situated in a developing district of Vilnius, along what Sorainen describes as “one of the most important transport arteries, Ukmerge street and the future Western bypass in Vilnius.” Tenants in the 12,000 square meter premises of the center include Swedbank, Vilniaus duona, Pieno zvaigzdes, General Financing, Santa Monica Networks, and CSC TELECOM.

Sorainen’s advice included assistance during due diligence, preparing and negotiating transaction documents, and signing and closing the transaction. The firm’s team was led by Partner Kestutis Adamonis, assisted by Associate Ugne Bartkute and Senior Associate Simona Stanciukaite.

Dorda has advised CROMA-PHARMA on the sale of its ophthalmology and orthopedics divisions in Western Europe, Asia, and North America to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, which had already purchased CROMA’s surgical divisions in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. 

CROMA is a family-owned company based in Austria specializing in pharmaceuticals and surgical products in the fields of ophthalmology, orthopaedics, and aesthetic medicines. Founded in 1976, the company achieved a turnover of EUR 80 million last year. It has 470 employees in 16 countries, including staff members in its subsidiaries in Canada and the USA. CROMA distributes its products across 102 different countries through its own sales organization, as well as through strategic partnerships and distributors. 

Valeant is an internationally active pharmaceutical corporation based in Laval, Montreal, with listings on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Valeant researches, develops, and produces pharmaceuticals and markets medicinal products in the fields of dermatology and ophthalmology. The company generated global revenues of approximately USD 5.8 billion in 2013. It employs a workforce of 7500.

Dorda Partners Andreas Mayr and Jurgen Kittel led the team on the deal, assisted by Lawyer Wolfgang Kinner and Legal Associate Jakob Pommer.

Dentons has acted as legal counsel to P3, the specialist owner, developer, and manager of European logistics properties, on the acquisition of a portfolio of three logistics parks — two in Poland and one in Romania — from CA Immobilien Anlagen.  

The portfolio totals 467,000 square meters of lettable area. The transaction also includes approximately 165 hectares of land for development, principally in Poland and Romania.

In Poland, the 177,000 square meters park at Blonie is located close to the Warsaw city center. Tenants include large traditional and online retailers like Bayer, IBM, Orange, Triumph, and Allegro. The park also offers 17 hectares of development land. The second park is located near Piotrkow, South East of Lodz in central Poland. It consists of 75,000 square meters of space and direct road links to Warsaw, Wroclaw and Katowice. The park is on a 120 hectare plot, offering scope for development.

The Bucharest Park is the largest of the three standing assets acquired by P3, consisting of 215,000 square meters of occupied space and 40 hectares of land for development on Bucharest’s principal ring road. Dentons describes it as “a major center for third-party logistics providers, due to its direct access to the A1 motorway heading westwards and the park’s freight handling facilities as part of the pan-European rail corridor linking Dresden and Nuremberg to Istanbul.” 

Dentons’ cross-border team consisted of Partners Peter Deegan and Gabriel Olearnik, with Associates Dominik Gorski and Agnieszka Nagorska providing additional support. A Bucharest team led by Partner Perry Zizzi (moved from Clifford Chance in July) — Dentons’ Head of Romania Banking and Finance — advised on the acquisition financing, while Warsaw-based Partner Tomasz Stasiak oversaw the due diligence process.

Evan Lazar, Co-Chairman of the Global Real Estate Group at Dentons, said: “The logistics sector continues to be attractive in Central and Eastern Europe and this is yet another significant cross-border transaction on the warehouse market that Dentons advised on this year.” 

In July Dentons advised Blackstone on a major logistics acquisition in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as advising Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and UniCredit Bank Austria on a joint EUR 215 million senior facility to refinance a P3 logistics portfolio in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. More recently White & Case advised P3 on an acquisition of a logistics portfolio in the Czech Republic.