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  • Squire Sanders qua Squire Sanders Wins Arbitration for Slovakia

    Squire Sanders has announced that it won a significant international arbitration for the Slovak Republic against the Dutch company Achmea. The announcement came days before the firm’s formal transformation into Squire Patton Boggs. 

    Achmea, a shareholder of the UNION health insurance company, commenced the arbitration against the Slovak Republic, claiming that the country had breached the Netherlands-Slovak Bilateral Investment Treaty’s encouragement and reciprocal protection of investments between the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. According to Achmea, the Slovak Republic’s plans to establish a single health insurance company and related conduct was in breach of the Treaty. Achmea requested that the Tribunal order the Slovak Republic to refrain from expropriating Achmea’s private health insurance company, subject to a financial penalty. Further, Achmea claimed that its investment was damaged by the conduct of 17 state-owned hospitals during the negotiations of contracts on healthcare provision, as well as by the purported general instability of the regulatory environment in health insurance. 

    The arbitral tribunal dismissed all of Achmea’s claims, after determining that the design and implementation of its public health policy is for the State alone to assess. Moreover, the tribunal stated that it is not empowered to intervene in the democratic process of a sovereign state and concluded that it had no jurisdiction over the dispute. 

    It also ordered Achmea to pay EUR 1.011 million in legal costs to the Slovak Republic, as well as tribunal costs of over EUR 340,000. According to Squire Sanders, the Slovak Republic incurred EUR 1.348 million in costs during the arbitration. 

    The Squire Sanders team was led by Partners Stephen Anway, George von Mehren, David Alexander, Rostislav Pekar, and Tatiana Prokopova. 

  • Lawyr.it Announces Open Call for Articles for Issue 6

    Lawyr.it, a peer-reviewed legal journal in English powered entirely by students, has announced an open call for articles to their sixth and newest issue.  

    The Lawyr.it magazine is launching a new open call for submissions! Do you want to get published in the first peer-reviewed legal journal focused on Central and Eastern Europe? You are invited to submit articles at editors@lawyr.it by July 31, accompanied by your contact details, brief info about your Law studies and a business-portrait photograph. 

    As creativity is encouraged, you are free to approach a theme of your choice, falling under either of the categories Domestic Law, International Law or Reflections. Before starting drafting your article, it is recommended that you  pay a quick visit to the Editorial Guidelines section of the website. Some user-friendly tips are prepared for you there, to ensure that your article is in line with the format of the publication.

    Lawyr.it encourages students should take a look at the Editorial Guidelines section of their website beforehand, to ensure that their article is in line with the requisites of the publication. For any additional queries, they may contact any member of the editorial team. In the meanwhile, you are invited to visit the publication at www.lawyr.it and contact any of the editors, should you have any additional queries.

    The Lawyr.it team looks forward to reading your articles!

     

  • Baker & McKenzie Advises on Giesecke & Devriant/Bundesdruckerei JV

    Baker & McKenzie has issued a press release explaining its role in the Giesecke & Devrient joint venture with the German Bundesdruckerei (the Federal Printing Agency), reported in CEE Legal Matters yesterday.

    The new joint venture, operating under the name Veridos, will be headquartered in Berlin. Bundesdruckerei and Giesecke & Devrient will, however, continue to independently pursue business in Germany, their business activities on the private sector market, and in banknote printing. Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) will hold a 60 percent share in Veridos and 40 percent in Bundesdruckerei. The supervisory bodies of both companies, the G&D shareholders, and the Federal Ministry of Finance as owner of Bundesdruckerei, have all approved the establishment of this joint venture. Subject to approval under cartel law, Veridos will commence business operations in mid-2014. 

    G&D is a leading global technology provider with its headquarters in Munich, Germany, and with 58 subsidiaries, joint ventures, and associated companies in 32 countries across every continent. At the end of 2013, G&D had approximately 11,660 employees and in fiscal 2013 generated total sales of EUR 1.75 billion, of which around 90 percent was earned outside Germany.  

    Baker & McKenzie’s team on the deal was led by Partner Jon Marcus Meese, assisted by Partner Steffan Scheuer, Marc Gabriel, and Nobert Mucki, and Associates Eva-Maria Worm, Katja Giese, Tino Marz, Stefanie Tuma, Johannes Teichmann, and Verena Barenbrinker.  

    Giesecke & Devrient’s in-house team included Reinhard Warmke (Group Vice President and Head of Corporate Legal Services), Alexandra Baumgartner (Senior Legal Counsel), Jutta Hausler (Head of Employment Law/Industrial Relations), and Stefanie Kainz (Senior Legal Counsel).

     

  • Eversheds Hires Former White & Case HR Director for EMEA

    Eversheds announced today that HR specialist Moira Slape has agreed to join the firm as HR Director. Slape joins Eversheds from White & Case, where she was Director of HR across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

    Slape has over two decades of experience in the legal sector. She worked at White & Case since 2010, initially as the London HR Director before being promoted to Director of HR for the EMEA region, where she had responsibility for 2000 people and 250 partners, as well as the leadership of the EMEA HR team. Before White & Case, Moira spent nine years at Linklaters, where she was Global Head of Learning & Development before being promoted to Head of HR for Global Business Services, where she had responsibility for HR services to Business Services in London and in the definition and implementation of global initiatives, practices, and policies for Business Services.

    According to Eversheds, “in her new role as Eversheds HR Director, Moira will be responsible for people strategy, covering talent, reward and employer brand as well as global integration across the firm’s offices.”

    Commenting on her appointment, Slape said: “I am thrilled to be taking up the role of HR Director at Eversheds, a firm which over the last few years has been at the forefront in tackling important industry issues such as diversity, social mobility and corporate responsibility. I look forward to working collaboratively with teams across the globe in devising and promoting best practice in HR across Eversheds offices.” 

     

  • EPAP Advises on Acquisition of Agel Enterprises

    Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners in Ukraine has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to Richmont Holdings, a private equity fund, on the acquisition of Agel Enterprises, a nutritional supplement supplier.

    EPAP Ukraine advised on the Ukrainian part of the deal, including deal structuring, preparation of transactional documents, and general advice on the Ukrainian law matters. The Firm’s antitrust team also assisted with merger control matters. Baker Botts acted as global lead counsel for Richmont Holdings coordinating with 15 other Lex Mundi member firms.

    Richmont Holdings is a Texas-based and family-owned company that owns direct capital investments in operating companies and investment vehicles, as well as active and passive investments in which it provide capital, resources, or both to support the growth of innovative business opportunities.

    Founded in 2005 and based in Utah, Agel offers a line of nutritional gel supplement products in over 55 countries around the world, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and USA.

     

     

  • Wolf Theiss Advises lifebrain on Purchase of Guidonia Group

    Wolf Theiss has advised lifebrain, a medical diagnostic laboratory group headquartered in Austria, on its acquisition of the Italian Guidonia Group. 

    lifebrain was established in 2003 by the former majority shareholder of Futurelab Group and other private shareholders and — according to Wolf Theiss — is currently the fastest growing medical diagnostic laboratory group in Europe. “We started our operational business with the acquisition of Labtop AG in Switzerland six months ago and since then have managed to increase our turnover to approx. EUR 20 million through four successful acquisitions, among them the largest cytologic laboratory in Switzerland,” said Michael Havel, the CEO and co-founder of lifebrain. “Guidonia is a very important first step in our strategy to become the leading player in the geographical area of Rome and Southern Italy.” Bernhard Auer, CFO of lifebrain, added: “We have already identified a substantial number of further targets, both in the DACH region as well as in Italy and have equity funds readily available to invest approx. EUR 100 million within the next 6 months.”

    We have worked with the management team of lifebrain for more than 10 years on some 45 successful acquisitions and are proud to be able to assist also in this new dynamic and progressive venture of lifebrain,” said Wolf Theiss Partner Dieter Spranz, who advises lifebrain on all corporate law matters. The Milan and Rome offices of Latham & Watkins advised on the Italian law aspects of the Guidona transaction and BDO acted as financial adviser to lifebrain.

     

     

  • Allen & Overy Rehires Old Friend

    Allen & Overy has announced that Attila Csongrady will be re-joining the firm as Counsel in the firm’s CEE English law Banking and Finance practice.

    Csongrady is qualified in both the UK and US, and he advises commercial and investment banks, private equity houses, sponsors and companies on a wide range of financing transactions. His practice focuses predominantly on the CEE and CIS regions.

    Attila first joined Allen & Overy in 1999, and he spent 2000-2006 as an Associate in the firm’s London Leveraged Finance practice. In 2006, Attila relocated to Vienna where he set up and led the Vienna-based CEE/CIS English law Finance practice at Freshfields for six years. He spent a brief period at DLA Piper in Vienna as a Partner before returning to A&O.

    Given the proximity of Vienna and Bratislava, Attila will be based in Allen & Overy’s Bratislava office, where he will work closely with other members of the CEE English law Banking/Finance practice, as well as with the Slovak Banking/Finance practice led by Partner Renatus Kollar.

    A&O’s Warsaw-based Partner Dan Cocker, who heads the firm’s CEE English law Banking/Finance practice, commented: “Attila’s rejoining Allen & Overy continues our strategy of meeting client demand for top-level English law banking and finance advice across the CEE and SEE region, delivered by a specialist team based in the region – and in Attila’s case with a particular focus on clients based in Vienna.”

    (imagesource derstandard.at)

     

     

     

  • Sorainen Get Shout-Out from Belarus Ministry of Justice

    Sorainen has announced that the Belarus Ministry of Justice has named the firm’s Minsk office the “Best Provider of Legal Services in Belarus” for the third time.

    The annual award is based on criteria such as number of qualified legal personnel, clients serviced in 2013, volume of services rendered in attracting foreign investment to Belarus, turnover and taxes paid, media activity, and absence of client complaints. According to a firm press release, Sorainen remains the only office of a European law firm ever to receive this recognition.

    Belarus Managing Partner Kiryl Apanasevich was delighted at the news. “We are pleased to receive this award from the Ministry of Justice for the third time, as it proves our consistent leadership in the Belarusian market. We are grateful to our clients and team members who made this recognition possible.” 

    Editorial Update (June 3, 2014): Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners announced that it had won a similar award reported by CEE Legal Matters here. When contacted, Dennis Turovets explained that “the Ministry of Justice may issue the award in question not to one but several law firms, which has been the case with our law firm and Sorainen.”

     

     

  • Introducing GC Advisory Board

    Introducing GC Advisory Board

    We are proud to announce the Advisory Board for our Central & Eastern Europe General Counsel Best Practices Handbook.

    CEE General Counsel Best Practices Handbook Advisory Board

     

     CEE General Counsel Best Practices Handbook Advisory Board

    The Advisory Board will provide input on the research project to ensure that the most relevant aspects related to day-to-day workings of General Counsel/Heads of Legal across different industries are addressed in the survey, and will offer qualitative feedback on the findings of the data collected. 

    We are honored by the composition of the GC Advisory Board:

    Florin Dumbrava: Legal Director at Dalkia Romania (Bucharest)

    Oraz Dursyev: Legal Director, Compliance Officer CEE at Anheuser-Busch InBev (Moscow)

    Agnieszka Dziegielewska-Jonczyk: Country Legal Counsel at Hewlett-Packard (Warsaw)

    Gordon Finlayson: General Counsel at HBO Europe (Budapest)

    Pal Kara: Vice-president for Legal and General Counsel (Chief Legal Counsel) at MOL Group (Budapest)

    Andras Mohacsi: Global Commercial Compliance Counsel at British American Tobacco (London) 

    Over 1000 General Counsel across the CEE region will be invited to participate in the research project, which will commence at the end of this month. The resulting CEE Legal Matters GC Best Practice Handbook will be published in mid-July. 

    In-house counsel are invited to reach out to us directly to learn more about the research project by writing to us at radu.cotarcea(@)ceelm.com. Stay tuned for more information!   

     

  • Allen & Overy Advises on Azomures Financing

    Allen & Overy has advised on a EUR 66 million financing of Azomures to be used for modernizing its plant in Targu Mures, Romania.

    Azomures is the main fertilizer producer in Romania. It currently employs over 2700 people and its products are sold on both the domestic as well as European, African, Chinese, Japanese, South American and US markets. The majority shareholder of the company is Ameropa Holding, a privately owned international trader of cereal and fertilizer from Switzerland. 

    Ceska sporitelna and Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka were the main creditors working in collaboration with Banca Comerciala Romana, which acted as the guarantor. According to a Azomures press release, the financing will allow the fertilizer producer to carry out one of the most important investment projects in the last 30 years, meant to increase the production capacity of the plant from the current 900 tons/day to 1425 tons/day. 

    The plant upgrade will be carried out by the Czech Chemoproject Nitrogen company, while the new plant will be insured by the Czech state-owned Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation (EGAP).

    According to the joint press-release of Azomures and the three banks, Allen & Overy, together with RTPR Allen & Overy in Romania, advised the creditors in the deal.