The Bucharest Court of Law has ordered the cancellation of insolvency procedures against Carrefour Romania initiated by one of the retailer’s suppliers, which claimed unpaid debts in the amount of EUR 180,000.
Carrefour was represented in the proceeding by the Romanian Tuca Zbarcea and Associates law firm. GSL Logistic, a distributor for child and adult accessories with eight employees and a turnover of LEI 1.7 million, initiated the insolvency proceedings against Carrefour.
The Ukrainian Asters law firm has advised the International Finance Corporation on USD 65 Million Financing to Mriya, a leading Ukrainian agroindustrial company.
The IFC project includes a 2-year revolving working capital facility in the amount of USD 60 million to provide financing for inputs needed to produce agricultural commodities for sale to local clients and international traders. The project aims to replace the IFC’s existing USD 35 million 3-year working capital facility due for final repayment in March 2014.
In addition to the working capital facility, the project includes a three year USD 5 million loan to help Mriya improve its waste management capabilities and become more energy efficient.
Tasters has been advising the IFC on its partnership with Mriya since 2010.
The Asters Banking & Finance team working on the project included Partner Iryna Pokanay and Associates Gabriel Aslanian and Inna Bondarenko.
Specht Bohm has represented the Nordic Tieto IT service company in its acquisition of Siemens Convergance Creators’ telecom research and development division.
The transaction will involve the transfer of 220 employees to Tieto’s subsidiaries in Vienna, Zagreb, Brno, Bratislava, and Zilina. The transaction is expected to strengthen Tieto’s portfolio, while allowing Siemens to focus more on its core businesses.
The final transition to Tieto is expected to have occurred by April 1st, 2014.
On December 31, 2013, Mutares AG completed its acquisition of PIXmania (and all its subsidiaries) from Dixons Retail.
Gide served as legal counsel to Mutares AG in negotiating the September 26, 2013 sale and purchase agreement, and all the conditions precedent required for the completion of the acquisition were deemed satisfied by the end of the year.
The PIXmania group employs around 900 people in France and the Czech Republic, and generated a turnover of EUR 446 million during the 2013 financial year.
Mutares AG, which is listed on the Berlin stock exchange, acquires medium-sized companies with strong operational improvement potential that are sold by their owners as a result of a strategic repositioning process.
Gide’s team comprised of Partner Foulques de Rostolan and Associates Edgard Nguyen and Baba Hady Thiam.
Dentons has acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank in connection with a committed trade finance facility to the Bank Vostok public joint-stock company.
The BSTDB is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. With an authorized capital of EUR 3.45 billion, the BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing trade and project financing, guarantees and equity for development projects supporting both public and private enterprises in its member countries.
The Dentons Kiev team was led by Partner Natalya Selyakova, with support by Associate Nikolay Zhovner.
The Greek Papapolitis & Papapolitis law firm acted for York Capital Management (UK) Europe Advisors, in respect of the company’s investment in Invel Real Estate Partners’ EUR 653 million acquisition of a 66% stake in NBG Pangaea Real Estate Investment Company from the National Bank of Greece.
The P&P team advised in negotiating the terms of the EUR 125 million investment by York Capital. In addition, P&P advised on banking, regulatory, capital markets, corporate and antitrust matters and worked alongside counsel in the UK, Italy, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
According to Papapolitis & Papapolitis, the acquisition was the largest real estate transaction ever in Greece and one of the largest overall M&A transactions in the Greek market, with Pangaea, the largest Greek real estate investment company, owning a portfolio of real estate assets valued at over EUR 1 billion. The existing portfolio encompasses nearly all of the main office buildings of NBG and its bank branches, spread across various cities in Greece. Other firms advising York Capital included White & Case UK, White & Case Italy, Van Doome, and Ardent & Medernach.
The P&P team included associates Katerina Dalamara (Corporate), Panagiotis Papageorgiou (Real-Estate), Sergios Manarakis (Real-Estate) and Sophia Mavridou (Competition).
Richards Kibbe & Orbe announced today that its London office has added Partner Denise Hamer to strengthen the firm’s corporate practice.
Hamer’s practice concentrates on finance, distressed debt, financial restructuring, and special situations, with a particular focus on developing markets. She moves to RKO from Central European law firm Schoenherr, where she was a banking and finance partner.
Hamer has more than two decades of practice in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia, and she has held senior positions with banks Societe Generale, Citigroup, and BAWAG. She has represented financial institutions, investment banks, funds, supranationals and corporates in a multitude of domestic and cross-border matters, including contentious and non-contentious restructurings and the sale and acquisition of performing and non-performing assets and portfolios.
Citing the recently-published Mergermarket 2013 M&A Trend Report, Greenberg Traurig reports that it led all firms in Poland based on the overall value of its M&A deals in 2013.
Greenberg Traurig’s Poland office advised on USD 7.6 billion in aggregated M&A transactions in 2013. The firm advised on transactions such as the takeover of Polkomel by Cyfrowy Polsat, the takeover of BGZ by BNP Paribas, Bank PKO BP’s takeover of Nordea Bank, the takeover of the Canadian TriOil company by PKN Orlen, the sale of Wirtualna Polska portal by TP, the sale of eService by Bank PKO BP, and the takeover of Zelmer by Bosch and Siemens, among others.
Clifford Chance and the Romanian Voicu & Filipescu and Popovici Nitu & Asociatii law firms have advised on a EUR 60 million financing project for Romania’s Hidroconstructia.
Hidroconstrucia,the largest hydro-energy and construction company in Romania, received a EUR 60 million credit from a bank consortium consisting of BRD-Groupe Societe Generale and Allianz-Tiriac Insurance.
The lendors were advised by the Clifford Chance Badea and Voicu & Filipescu law firms. Popovici Nitu & Asociatii advised Hidroconstructia.
In a first financing round, Wolf Theiss has advised IT company RapidMiner on taking on USD 5 million in new capital from Earlybird Venture Capital and Open Ocean Capital.
RapidMiner, founded in Germany in 2007, offers software solutions and services in the field of “predictive analytics, data and text mining.” Global players such as Cisco, EADS, eBay, Intel, Lufthansa, PayPal, PepsiCo, Siemens and Volkswagen are among the users of the software the company has developer, and the funds RapidMiner has obtained from Earlybird and Open Ocean, two venture capital investors specializing in high tech companies, are expected to support RapidMiner’s bid to capture the American market as well.
The Wolf Theiss team advising RapidMiner on the transaction was led by Partner Clemens Philipp Schindler, who commented that: “To remain competitive it is vital for companies to be able to use and evaluate their own data. Due to the ever increasing amount of data, the demand for products such as RapidMiner will continue to grow in the future. The move into the USA was, therefore, the next logical step to be able to profit from the market potential.”
Schindler was assisted by Wolf Theiss Partner Martin Abram, Senior Associates Martina Gatterer and Katharina Schindler, and Associate Markus Taufner. RapidMiner was also advised by teams from Pollath + Partner in Germany and Cooley in the USA.