CEE Legal Matters

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  • Two New Partners at Binder Groesswang

    Binder Groesswang has promoted Banking/Finance attorney Stephan Heckenthaler and Corporate/M&A attorney Markus Uitz to Partner, effective as of February 1, 2014.

    Heckenthaler specializes in banking and capital markets law and advises primarily on corporate funding, the financing of acquisitions and projects, and supervisory law matters for banks and insurance companies. He was significantly involved in advising Oesterreichische Volksbanken AG on its restructuring in the course of the creation of a group pursuant to Art. 3 of the Capital Requirements Directive as well as in advising the Prinzhorn group and its financing banks on the acquisition of the listed Turkish paper production plant Dentas Ambalaj ve Kagit Sanayi. He has been at Binder Groesswang since 2010.

    Uitz joined Binder Groesswang in 2006. Recently he was one of the primary advisors to the Swiss SIX group on its acquisition of the Austrian PayLife Bank GmbH, to BAWAG P.S.K. on the sale of the listed Postsparkasse building, and to the founders of kununu GmbH on the sale of their share in XING AG. He also advises numerous start-up companies on ongoing legal matters.

    Binder Groesswang Partner Michael Kutschera and Managing Partner Thomas Schirmer released as a statement saying that: “We are very pleased that Stephan Heckenthaler and Markus Uitz are joining us as Partners. Both are recognized experts in their fields and have contributed substantially to the great success of the firm in recent years. Adding them to our team of highest-level advisors in Corporate/M&A and Banking/Finance reflects our precept of always giving our clients the best possible counsel, particularly in view of the ever-increasing complexity of legal issues and the challenges involved.”

  • English and Greek Firms Advise on Greek Motorway Restructurings

    Norton Rose Fulbright has advised on all legal aspects of two motorway restructurings in Greece with a combined value of GBP 3.1 billion, with Hogan Lovells and Linklaters across the table on the two deals.

    NRF acted for project company Aegean Motorway on the restructuring of the EUR 1.3 billion Maliakos-Kleidi motorway. The shareholders of Aegean Motorway are HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions, Vinci Concessions, AKTOR Concessions, J&P AVAX, AEGEK, and Athena. The lenders were advised by Hogan Lovells, and the Koutalidis Law Firm advised on the Greek legal aspects of the restructuring.

    Norton Rose Fulbright also acted for the lenders, including 26 banks and the European Investment Bank, on the restructuring of the EUR 1.8 billion Elefsina-Korinthos-Patras-Pyrgos-Tsakona motorway. Linklaters advised Olympia Odos, the project company, and Karatzas and Partners advised on the Greek legal aspects of the restructuring.

    Both restructurings closed on December 17. Construction work on the motorways is expected to resume in early 2014 and the motorways are expected to be operational by the end of 2015.

    Partner Madhavi Gosavi, who led the restructurings for Norton Rose Fulbright, said that, “the successful conclusion of these two motorway restructurings has increased investor confidence and demonstrates the Greek Government’s commitment to supporting new and existing infrastructure.”

    Gosavi was assisted by Norton Rose Fulbright Partners Charles Whitney, Jeffrey Barratt and Peter Hall, and by Associates Ann Vesely, Phil Hanson, Christina MacGilp, Ben Sealy, Eleanor Cochrane, and Jessica Bethell-Jones.

  • Morgan Lewis Serves as English Advisor to VTB Bank on Tender Offer

    Morgan Lewis advised the Russian VTB Bank on a cash tender offer that closed for three of its outstanding Loan Participation Notes.

    The tender offer involved USD 750 million 6.315% Loan Participation Notes due February 2018, its USD 2 billion 6.875% Loan Participation Notes due May 2018 and its USD 1 billion 6.551% Loan Participation Notes due October 2020.

    The tender offer was launched on January 20, 2014 for up to an aggregate principal amount of $500 million of Notes across the three series. The offer expired on January 24, 2014, at which time approximately USD 643 million of Notes across the three series had been tendered. Approximately USD 291 million of the Notes tendered were accepted for purchase.

    The tender offer was structured as an offer to purchase made by VTB Capital plc, a subsidiary of VTB, followed by a sale of the purchased Notes by VTB Capital plc to VTB. The purchase prices paid for the Notes were determined by a modified Dutch auction procedure. The dealer managers of the tender offer were Citigroup and VTB Capital.

    Morgan Lewis served as English legal adviser to VTB on the tender offer. The Morgan Lewis team was led by Business and Finance Partners Carter Brod and Bruce Johnston, assisted by Associates Elizabeth Dennison and Thomas Webb.

  • Sayenko Kharenko Advises on M&A Deal in Animal Feed Market

    Sayenko Kharenko has advised the Dutch Nutreco International on an M&A deal in the animal feed market and establishment of a joint venture in Ukraine.

    As a result of the completed transaction, Nutreco International has indirectly acquired a stake in Dutch Feed, a Ukrainian company with a large sales and distribution network throughout Ukraine.

    Sayenko Kharenko provided full transactional support on the deal, including legal due diligence, general advice on multiple Ukrainian law matters, deal structuring, obtaining merger clearance from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, assistance with preparation and negotiation of transaction documents, and assistance in the closing of the transaction.

    Sayenko Kharenko’s Corporate team for the transaction included Counsel Vitaly Kravchenko and Associates Oleksandr Nikolaichyk, Daria Gulinska, and Hanna Dobrynska. Also assisting were Sayenko Kharenko Antitrust Counsel Dmitry Taranyk and Associate Maksym Nazarenko. Both teams worked under the supervision of Partner Vladimir Sayenko.

  • DLA Piper Advises Leroy Merlin on Hypermarket Construction

    DLA Piper has advised Leroy Merlin, one of the largest European DIY retail networks, on the construction and opening of its second hypermarket in Kiev.

    The transaction consisted of an acquisition of a Ukrainian company which held the land titles for the plot and subsequent construction of the hypermarket. DLA Piper advised on various Corporate, Tax, Finance & Projects and Real Estate matters throughout the transaction.

    Partner and Head of Real Estate in Ukraine Natalia Kochergina, who led the DLA Piper team on the transaction, said that “this is the second Leroy Merlin hypermarket in Ukraine, and we have provided full legal support on both. It is expected that in 2014 a further hypermarket will open, and we are also advising the client on that project.” 

    Kochergina’s team included DLA Piper Senior Associate Dmytro Pikalov, Associate Sergiy Portnoy, and Legal Directors Illya Sverdlov and Illya Muchnyk.

  • Dentons Appoints New Of Counsel in Moscow

    Nadezhda Gryazeva has been promoted to Of Counsel in Denton’s Moscow office.

    Gryazeva’s practice focuses on Russian Corporate/M&A law and foreign investments in the Russian Federation. She has also worked on Russian merger control requirements and provided legal support for compliance with the regulatory clearance procedures in share and asset acquisitions, and corporate restructurings.

    Gryazeva joined the firm (then operating as Salans) in 2007 after working for several years for the ALRUD Law Firm.

  • White & Case Closes Bucharest Office

    White & Case Pachiu, the Romanian arm of White & Case, has announced that it will cease operations in Romania as of February 1, 2014, but announced an exclusive alliance with Bondoc & Associatii.

    Going forward, White & Case will operate in Romania through an exclusive alliance with a firm led by current White & Case Pachiu co-Executive Partner, Lucian Bondoc. The current office’s other Executive Partner, Delia Pachiu, has decided to take a career break, and will not be participating in the new arrangement.

    Of the change, Bondoc said that “The Romanian partnership has achieved healthy growth in recent years and the new relationship with White & Case will support the continued development and growth of Bondoc & Asociatii while ensuring the ongoing delivery of the high quality legal services our clients expect.”

    White & Case Executive Committee member Oliver Brettle insisted that the new arrangement “will have no effect on the services provided to clients in Romania, the wider CEE region, or elsewhere,” and that the firm “remains strongly committed to its clients and on-the-ground presence across Central & Eastern Europe.”

  • Austrian Schoenherr Launches Full Brussels Office

    Schoenherr is expanding its office in Brussels and transforming it from a representative to a full-fledged operational office.

    As announced previously Schoenherr Partner Volker Weiss will head the office. Weiss specializes in Competition Law, and the Brussels office will focus on EU and Competition matters as well, particularly on matters with CEE impact.

    Schoenherr has been present with a representative office in Brussels since late 1994, coinciding with Austria’s accession to the EU. In a statement released today, the firm asserted that its move to now launch a fully-fledged Brussels office “reflects the considerable growth of the firm in the CEE region and the growing importance of EU law and Competition law matters to the firm’s clients situated there.”

    “We want to bring CEE closer to Brussels – and Brussels closer to CEE,” Weiss stated. “We see a lot of market potential in advising companies in those countries which have recently acceded to the EU or are set to do so. Our clients will benefit from our presence in Brussels. This is a move planned and achieved together with the colleagues of our competition practice group in CEE. To this end, we are integrating members from our CEE-based EU & Competition teams, some of whom will also relocate to Brussels.”

  • Diageo Turkey Hires New General Counsel

    Meltem Azbazdar has joined Diageo as its new General Counsel responsible for the Turkish market. 

    Azbazdar previously worked at Carrefour as a Real Estate and Business Development Director and General Counsel. Prior to that she worked as a Senior Associate with the Turkish Herguner Bilgen Ozeke law firm. She specializes in Corporate/M&A and Real Estate.

     

  • King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin on Acquisition of Plastic Packaging Producer

    King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin has advised CEREA Partenaire, including the group’s Hungarian industrial partner, Chemark, on the acquisition of Speciality Chemical Packaging from Irving Place Capital and Oaktree Capital Management.

    CEREA Partenaire is a leading private equity investor specializing in agribusiness and related sectors that has carried out 49 investments since its creation in 2004, and invested, with its co-investors, more than EUR 400 million.

    Specialty Chemical Packaging is the former division of Chesapeake, a global provider of paper, cardboard and plastic packaging and is the European leader in barrier plastic packaging used mainly in the transport and storage of agrochemical products. The company reached a turnover of approximately EUR 50 million and employs 200 people in Europe.

    This carve-out process will allow the group to deploy its resources in new areas with strong agricultural activity, in particular Brazil and Russia.

    The King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin team was composed of Partners Thomas Maitrejean and Ylan Steiner and Associates Thomas Dupont and Benjamin Thorez for Corporate; Partners Raphael Bera and Gareth Amdor and Associate Thomas Guillier on Tax aspects; and Partner Olivier Vermeulen and Associates Marc Zerah and Margaux Baratte on Finance aspects.