CEE Legal Matters

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  • Luther Advises Immofinanz Group in Acquisition of Residential Units and Management

    Luther has advised the Austrian Immofinanz Group on legal and tax aspects of the acquisition of 18,000 residential units and the residential real estate service business from the Prelios Deutschland company.

    The residential units — acquired by Immofinanz subsidiary BUWOG for approximately EUR 900 million — are primarily located in the German cities of Kiel, Lubeck, Hamburg, and Braunschweig, and were previously in a portfolio owned by a joint venture of Prelios and the real estate investment management fund of Deutsche Bank. The residential real estate service business acquired by Immofinanz from Prelios has approximately 300 employees. 

    Luther had previously advised Immofinanz Group on a 2013 acquisition of two residential portfolios in Luneburg and Syke, and the firm had supported BUWOG (and others) on an acquisition of 2,000 residential units in Berlin.

     

  • Clifford Chance Closes Kiev Office in Response to Ongoing Civil Protests and Conflict

    Clifford Chance has announced that it has temporarily closed its Kiev office “due to the current situation.”  

    In the same announcement, however, the firm emphasizes that its team “is continuing to support clients and remains available through landlines, mobile numbers, and email addresses.” The firm did not state when it planned to reopen the office, only that they are “continu[ing] to keep the situation under review and will re-open the office as soon as appropriate.”

     

  • Dentons Advises Polish Bank Syndicate on Multi-Purpose Financing to Inter Cars

    Dentons acted as legal counsel to a syndicate of Polish banks on the PLN 495 million (approximately USD 162 million) multipurpose financing to Inter Cars.

    The syndicate consisted of Bank Polska Kasa Opieki, Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, BRE Bank, ING Bank Slaski S.At.  Inter Cars is the biggest automotive spare parts distributor for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and trucks in Middle-Eastern Europe.

    Dentons lawyers in Poland, Ukraine, the Slovak Republic, Romania, and the Czech Republic assisted on the transaction. The Dentons Warsaw team was led by Partner Mateusz Toczyski, with support from Associates Katarzyna Blachnio and Bartosz Nojek. The Dentons Kiev team was led by Partner Natalya Selyakova, with support from Associates Anna Makedonska and Oleg Zaiats.

  • Ilyashev & Partners Successfully Represents NetCracker in Ukrainian Appellate Courts

    Ilyashev & Partners has successfully represented NetCracker in the Ukrainian appellate courts.

    In the initial trial, the Social Protection Fund for People with Disabilities successfully sued TOV NetCracker in two actions, winning over UAH 5 million in sanctions for NetCracker’s alleged failure to meet the mandatory quota for the employment of people with disabilities. The first and second appellate courts, however, reversed the trial court’s decision, finding that evidence showed that NetCracker was in fact in good standing with reporting requirements and had voluntarily recruited persons with disabilities for current and upcoming vacancies.

    Ilyashev & Partners Partner Maksym Kopeychykov led the case, and said that even with a vast number of similar cases being heard by administrative courts, persuading the judges was quite challenging. “Luckily, in reaching its decision the Higher Administrative Court made a serious study into the case and recognized that the trial court had misapplied the substantive law.”

     

  • Dentons Named “Law Firm of the Year” at CEE Real Estate Award Ceremony

    Dentons has announced that  it was named “Law Firm of the Year” at the 6th CEE Retail Real Estate Awards ceremony in Warsaw.  

    Dentons was chosen over seven other international firms operating in Poland, including Hogan Lovells, Allen & Overy, and Clifford Chance. The ceremony, organized by EuropaProperty, was held on February 13th. The 41-member jury panel was comprised of senior industry professionals from commercial retail real estate companies, retailers, projects and people operating in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. In reviewing the nominees, the judges put special emphasis on the scale of the projects the law firms advised on in 2013 in CEE, as well as the innovative solutions offered to clients. 

    According to Dentons, jury members appreciated the fact that last year Dentons lawyers advised in all of the major and most complex retail transactions in Poland, including advising Immofinanz Group on the largest asset sale in Poland in 2013 – the EUR 412 million sale of Silesia City Center in Katowice to Allianz Real Estate. Dentons lawyers also advised Atrium European Real Estate on the EUR 151 million acquisition of Galeria Dominikanska shopping center in Wroclaw, as well as Charter Hall Retail REIT on the EUR 174 million sale of five shopping centers in Poland to  the EPISO 3 fund (managed by Tristan Capital Partners). The Dentons team also represented Inter IKEA Centre Polska on the approx. EUR 200 million acquisition of the Wola Park shopping center in Warsaw from the PBW II Real Estate Fund.

    Piotr Szafarz, Head of Denton’s Real Estate Team in Poland, said “This recognition has come to our team for the fourth year in a row and confirms our continued strong position on the Polish legal real estate and retail market. We are thrilled to see that our work is appreciated by our clients and by the retail experts.”

     

  • WFW advises HSH Nordbank on the Transfer of 10 Vessels to the Navios Group

    Watson, Farley & Williams has advised HSH Nordbank on a transfer of 10 distressed vessels out of its non-core portfolio to the Navios Group.

    The fleet comprises five medium or large range product tankers and five panamax or sub-panamax container vessels, with an average age of six years and a market value in the region of USD 218 million. Watson, Farley & Williams describes the “highly structured complex financing” as “a landmark deal in the shipping industry, providing a blueprint on how lenders may look to dispose of their non-performing debts without giving up their recovery potential in case of an improving shipping market.” 

    The financing comprises four different levels of debt and security in respect of each vessel and complex inter-creditor arrangements to comply with the securitization requirements of the lenders. Navios funded the acquisition through USD 120.4 million senior bank debt, USD 10 million investment plus working capital from Navios, and a USD 173.4 million subordinated HSH participating loan.

    WFW Asset Finance Partners George Paleokrassas and Clemens Hillmer led the team, and were supported by Patrick Smith, Electra Stamatopoulos, Gladys Sexl and Michael Valentin.

     

  • ICC Commission Appoints Russian as Vice-Chair

    Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners (EPAM) has announced that, on January 1, 2014, Ilya Nikiforov, Managing Partner of the firm’s St. Petersburg office, was named Vice-Chair of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

    According to EPAM, this is the first time a practitioner from Russia or the CIS has been appointed as an officer of the Commission. The Commission on Arbitration and ADR is the ICC’s rule-making body, and it promotes the settlement of international disputes through arbitration, mediation, expertise, dispute boards, and other forms of dispute resolution. In addition, the Commission provides guidance on a range of topics of current relevance in the world of international dispute resolution and fosters connections among arbitrators, counsel, and users, enabling the ICC’s dispute resolution services to respond effectively to users’ needs.  The ICC has 690 members, representing more than 90 countries.

    Nikiforov is highly-respected in the field. According to Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, he was appointed an officer of the Arbitration Committee of International Bar Association and of Eurasia committee of American Bar Association. In 2013 he was appointed as a Councillor of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) European Users’ Council. He is listed as an arbitrator by the ICDR, WIPO, the Vienna International Arbitral Centre, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and national institutions throughout Russian & Eastern Europe. He has appeared before higher domestic courts at all levels, the International Commercial Arbitration Court in Moscow, and international arbitration institutions such as the ICC, LCIA and SCC. He is often engaged to serve as a Russian law counsel/expert in connection with commercial litigation and international arbitration proceedings worldwide.

     

  • Schoenherr Promotes Competition Lawyer to Counsel

    Schoenherr has promoted Competition lawyer Stefanie Stegbauer to Counsel.

    Stegbauer, who works in the firm’s Vienna office, specializes in Austrian and European competition law and represents clients in antitrust and Phase 1 and Phase 2 merger control proceedings before both the Austrian Competition Authority and the country’s Cartel Court, as well as before the European Commission and the European Court of Justice.

     

  • Gessel Advises Highlander Partners on Take-over of Druk-Pak

    Gessel has advised Highlander Partners — working through its AKOMEX portfolio company — on the purchase of DRUK-PAK, a cardboard packaging producer listed on Warsaw’s NewConnect exchange.

    AKOMEX, established in Gdansk in 1993, is itself a producer of solid and corrugated cardboard packaging, mainly for the foodstuffs and cosmetics industries, and was included in the Highlander Partners portfolio of companies in 2010. The combination of the two companies resulting from this transaction will be one of Poland’s largest producers of consumer packaging. 

    The Gessel team working on the transaction was led by Partner Marcin Macieszczak and Managing Associate Monika Woloszka.

     

  • Ilyashev & Partners Defends Vitmark-Ukraine in Tax Hearing

    Ilyashev & Partners has successfully defended Vitmark-Ukraine in the Ukrainian Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine against charges of an illegal decrease of negative profit tax by the tax authorities.

    Ilyashev & Partners Partner Maksym Kopeychykov, legal counsel in the case, noted that consideration by the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine of the cassation appeal proves that it is possible to reach justice in Ukraine even in cases against the tax authorities, if the legal position is compelling, and the taxpayer carries out business activities in compliance with the law. “I have always believed that colleagues speaking of ‘impossibility of dealing with the state due to the pressure of public agencies on the courts’ are somewhat disingenuous as experience has proven the opposite.”

    Vitmark-Ukraine is the largest Ukrainian producer of juices, nectars, juice-based and soft drinks, baby food, puree and concentrated semi-finished products. The company was founded in 1994.