CEE Legal Matters

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  • Baker & McKenzie Advises on ABH Financial’s EUR 350 Million Eurobond Offering

    Baker & McKenzie has advised UBS Limited and Commerzbank as the joint lead managers on the establishment of a EUR 600 million medium term notes program and an offering of EUR 350 million 5.5 percent Eurobonds due in 2017 to finance a senior loan to ABH Financial Limited.

    The Eurobonds were issued by Alfa Holding Issuance to ABH Financial, a holding company of the Alfa Bank open joint stock company.

    Baker & McKenzie’s team was led by Moscow Partner Roy Pearce, working alongside Moscow Partner Dmitry Dembich and London Partner Chris Hogan, with support from Associate Olga Ehrman in Moscow.

     

  • Gide Confirms Role in KGHM Polska Miedz Loan

    Gide Loyrette Nouel has confirmed that it advised KGHM Polska Miedz on the USD 2.5 billion loan agreement reported by CEE Legal Matters on July 16, 2014.

    Gide calls the agreement, which was signed on July 11, 2014, by the large Polish mining company, “one of the largest transactions of this type carried out in Europe this year.” As previously reported, the agreement was signed with a consortium of Polish and foreign banks, including Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Credit Agricole Bank Polska, Bank Zachodni WBK, Santander Bank, Bank Pekao, Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, and Bank PKO BP. 

    Gide Polish Partners Dariusz Tokarczuk and Pawel Grzeskowiak led the team, assisted by Associate Marta Karminska. Gide’s London-based Partner Dimitrios Logizidis and Associate Sarah Whitley were also involved. KGHM received financial advice from Rothschild.

     

  • Bird & Bird Loses Senior Lawyer to K&L Gates in Poland

    Patryk Galicki has left his position as Partner at Bird & Bird to become Of Counsel in the Real Estate Practice Group of K&L Gates’ Warsaw office.  

    Galicki has over 13 years of experience, primarily in Corporate, Real Estate, and Civil law. He also has experience in dispute resolution, telecommunications, and aviation matters.

    He joins K&L Gates after 5 years at Bird & Bird in Warsaw, and before that was a partner at his own firm, Galicki Litwinski Chechlinska Los Radcowie Prawni Spolka Partnerska.

     

  • Schoenherr Advises Rasperia/Basic Element in STRABAG Acquisition

    Schoenherr has advised Rasperia Trading (“Rasperia”) on its exercise of a call option to purchase shares and increase its shareholding in STRABAG to a blocking minority of 25 percent and one share.

    Rasperia, a company of Russia-based industrial conglomerate Basic Element, previously held 19.4 percent in the Vienna-based construction conglomerate. Basic Element is one of Russia’s largest diversified business groups. Its companies are, according to Schoenherr, “controlled by or are within the scope of Oleg Deripaska’s business interests.”

    Rasperia exercised the call option provided in a shareholder agreement that Rasperia/Basic Element and STRABAG’s other core shareholders (the Haselsteiner family and the Raiffeisen/UNIQA Group) reached in 2010, purchasing 6,377,144 STRABAG shares from the other core shareholders at a price of EUR 19.25 per share, or a total investment of around EUR 123 million.

    The Schoenherr team advising Rasperia/Basic Element was led by Partner Christian Herbst, assisted by Partner Volker Weiss and attorney Maximilian Lang.

     

  • Lawin Advises PSI Group in Acquisition of New Vision Baltija

    Lawin has advised PSI Group in its acquisition of 100 percent of the shares in New Vision Baltija from NV Invest.

    The total value of the transaction exceeded EUR 5 million (LTL 17.3 million), and the deal closed on July 11. 

    New Vision Baltija is a market leader within Retail Solutions in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The company also has subsidiaries in Finland and Russia. PSI Group is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and is a leading international provider of advanced technological solutions for securing cash through the SQS Security Qube and CashGuard systems, and is a major supplier of retail technology to the Scandinavian market.

    The Lawin team was led by Partner Zilvinas Zinkevicius and Associates Ruta Besusparyte and Aleksandr Asovskij.

     

  • Sorainen Advises Vicus Capital Advisors on Sale of Shopping Center

    Sorainen Estonia has advised and represented a real estate investment fund managed by Vicus Capital Advisors in the sale of a newly developed single tenant shopping center in Tartu, the second biggest city in Estonia. 

    Vicus Limited is a real estate development and investment company founded in May 2005. Vicus invests in real estate in Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic States.  The company is owned by a group of extremely financially solid Finnish investors.  The shareholders have committed to invest 75 million euros in the company. The rest of the investments will be financed with bank loans. Vicus’s investment capacity including the bank financing is 300–400 million euros. Vicus co-operates on a case-by-case basis in planning, developing and constructing its real estate projects with development, construction project management and engineering companies with local expertise.

    Vicus Capital Advisors is a real estate development and investment company founded in May 2005. Vicus invests in real estate in Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States.

    The company is owned by a group of Finnish investors. The shareholders have committed to invest 75 million euros in the company. The rest of the investments are financed with bank loans. Vicus’s investment capacity including the bank financing is 300–400 million euros.

    In addition to transaction support Sorainen managed the LDD process and the sale was executed under an expedited schedule.

     

  • Uler & Dimici Adds New Partner in Istanbul

    Turkish Corporate lawyer Oya Deniz Kavame has joined Uler & Dimici Attorneys at Law as Partner, leaving her position as Senior Associate at the Aksan Law Firm.  

    At Uler & Dimici she will lead the Corporate and M&A practice areas. She spent the previous seven years at Aksan, where she was Team Leader in the International and Corporate Law Department. 

    Kavame obtained her law degree from Istanbul Bilgi University in 2006, and a year later obtained a Certificate in Law from the South Texas College of Law in the United States. 

    Named Partner Kerem Uler is excited at his office’s expanded service for clients. “Being a niche firm that has established itself without the benefit of a significant M&A practice,” he explained, “we are very excited about the opportunities Kavame’s experience and expertise will create for us.” And Kavame speaks in similar terms: “I have joined forces with Kerem and Burak, who are respectful people and has different expertise on various field of law. In this way we, as Uler & Dimici Attorneys at Law, have gained more power and became more dynamic.

    With the addition of Kavame, the office now has three Partners and five Associates.

     

  • Asters Advises J&T Banka on Collateral Substitution

    Asters has acted as legal counsel to J&T Banka, a leading Czech private bank, in connection with the substitution of collateral under a multimillion financing extended to one of the bank’s borrowers.

    Asters’ team advising on the project included Senior Partner Armen Khachaturyan, Counsel Oleksiy Demyanenko, and Associate Yuriy Radko.

     

  • Lakatos, Koves & Partners Advises on Renovation of Landmark Building in Budapest

    Lakatos, Koves and Partners has advised DVM on the renovation of what the firm calls “one of the landmark buildings of Budapest.”

    The Eiffel Palace, which was originally built in 1893, and contains facade elements, an interior courtyard, and wrought iron structure of the main stairway all designed by Gustav Eiffel’s firm, was renovated and transformed into a first-class “A” category office building.

    The Eiffel Palace, which faces Budapest’s Nyugati (“Western”) Railway Station, has — again, according to the firm — “regained its splendor with the developer’s deliberate aim to preserve its historical and architectural values.”

    “Advising on a great real estate development is always a pleasure, and its historical significance makes us proud of being part of it,” said Partner Attila Ungar.

    Among the tenants at the historic building is Dentons, which moved into its newly renovated home in February, 2014.

     

     

  • Baker & McKenzie Advises on Sale of Leading e-Pin Distributor

    Turkey’s Esin Attorney Partnership has advised the two founders and shareholders of Game Sultan, the largest e-pin distributor in Turkey, on the sale of Game Sultan shares to MOL AccessPortal. MOL Access Portal is a subsidiary of Malaysia-based e-payments service provider MOL Global.

    According to the Esin Attorney Partnership – the Turkish member firm of Baker & McKenzie International — the firm “advised Kazim Akalin and Aykut Sanver, local shareholders of Sihirli Kule (Game Sultan), on the sale of: (i) a 30 percent stake in the operator of Game Sultan, MOL Turkey Bilgi Sistemleri Yayincilik Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi; and (ii) a 30 percent stake in Sihirli Kule Bilgi Sistemleri Ltd., to MOL AccessPortal Sdn. Bhd.” The deal was signed on May 6, 2014, and closed on July 15, 2014. The Firm also advised Akalin and Sanver on the sale of: (i) a 70 percent stake in MOL Turkey Bilgi Sistemleri Yayincilik Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi; (ii) a 70 percent stake in Sihirli Kule Bilgi Sistemleri Ltd.; and (iii) a 70 percent stake in the leading Turkish leading mobile payment company PaytoGo to MOL in March 2013.

    Game Sultan is the largest e-pin distributor in Turkey, offering in-game currencies for over 100 online games from more than 25 global publishers. The company operates an e-wallet system using a branded virtual currency called G-Cash, which can be purchased online and in kiosks, retail outlets and cybercafes across Turkey. 

    Founded in 2000, Malaysia-based MOL AccessPortal is a leading online payment solutions provider wholly owned by MOL Global. Including Turkey, MOL is active in 11 countries. Ganesh Kumar Bangah is the founder and group CEO of the company.

    The Esin Attorney Partnership team advising on the transaction was led by M&A Partner Muhsin Keskin, with support from Associates Erdem Sismangil, Berk Cin, and Mustafa Ozkan Ozdogan. Akalin and Sanver received financial advice from 3Seas Capital Partners.

    The Esin Attorney Partnership reports that this is the seventh transaction it has advised on in the Turkish online gaming market and the fifth transaction it has advised the Game Sultan shareholders on in the last year. In 2013, the Firm advised Burak Balik on the sale of his 50 percent stake in: (i) SHR Interaktif Servisler Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., the operator of Joygame, the no. 1 Turkish multiplayer online gaming and entertainment company; and (ii) Joygame Interactive Services Ltd., to CJ Games. Relatedly, in February 2014, the Firm advised AIM-listed Monitise plc on the cross-border acquisition of 100 percent of the issued share capital of Pozitron Yazilim A.S., an online payment, banking, and security systems company and in 2012, the Firm advised SK Planet on its joint venture with Dogus Holding to set up n11.com, an online marketplace platform. 

    “Advising clients on transactions in the dot-com business, online gaming, e-payment and e-commerce sectors is exciting because it places us at the intersection of Turkey’s emerging tech scene and entrepreneurial spirit,” commented Keskin.