CEE Legal Matters

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  • Raidla Lejins & Norcous and Stepanovski Papakul & Partners in Belarus Consortium

    A consortium consisting of the Baltic Raidla Lejins & Norcous (RLN) and the Belarus Stepanovski, Papakul and Partners (SPP) law firms, along with KPMG offices in Hungary and Belarus, was selected to attract and generate investment to several Belarus state owned enterprises.

    The consortium was selected from over 30 applicants by the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus and the Belarus National Agency of Investment and Privatization. The contract authorizes and empowers the consortium to attract investment to the “Baranovichi Reinforced Concrete Products Plant”, “Belsantekhmontazh-2”,  “Construction and Mounting Trust No 8”, and “Avtomagistral” open joint-stock companies.

    The consortium will conduct financial, operational, and legal due diligence of the SOEs and an independent stock assessment in accordance with Belarussian and international methodological standards. They will also conduct investment risk analysis, develop strategies for attracting investors, and implement a marketing campaign.

    It is expected that the project will have identified and selected strategic investors by the end of 2014.

    Irmantas Norkus, the Managing Partner of RLN’s Lithuania Office, claimed that the project is part of the firm’s “obligation to provide highest quality services to potential investors in Belarus.” The team leader of the consortium is Tamas Simonyi, the Head of KPMG CEE Financial Institutions, M&A Advisory, and Director of Corporate Finance Advisory at KPMG in Hungary.

  • Gen & Temizer Ozer Represents Namet in Sale of Minority Stake to Investcorp

    Gen & Temizer Ozer has announced that it represented Namet Gida Sanayi ve Ticareti and its shareholders in the December 2013 sale of a significant minority stake to Investcorp. The deal value was not disclosed.

    The Kayar family, which acquired Namet in 2005, retained a majority interest in the Turkish producer of fresh cut and packaged processed red meat products. 

    Tarik Kayar, Chairman and CEO of Namet, said: “We have invested heavily in the Company in the past few years and became the #1 vertically integrated meat business in Turkey. We believe we are well positioned for steady expansion underpinned by solid market demand. This investment demonstrates confidence in the future prospects of our Company and our country and we look forward in partnering with Investcorp.

    Gen & Temizer Ozer Partners Emre Ozer and Baran Gen led the team representing Namet, with the assistance of Associate Dila Topuz. Ozer explained that, “the transaction was one of the stand-out private equity deals in Turkey in 2013. We are very pleased to have acted for Namet and its shareholders in its partnership with Investcorp to secure investment to build on its position as the number 1 vertically integrated red meat business in Turkey.” 

    Societe Generale provided investment bank advice to Namet and shareholders. DLA Piper’s Turkish office (led by Partners Cuneyt Yuksel and Jonathan Clark) advised Investcorp.

     

  • Akin Gump Makes New Partner in Moscow

    The international Akin Gump law firm has promoted lawyer Svetlana Anatolievna Volevich to Partner in the firm’s Moscow office, effective as of January 1, 2014.

    Volevich is a member of Akin Gump’s corporate practice. She represents oil and gas and telecommunications companies on matters involving litigation, securities regulations, mergers and acquisitions, employment and general corporate matters. She was one of eight Akin Gump lawyers promoted to partner around the world in the new year.

  • Hogan Lovells Promotes Lawyer to Counsel in Moscow

    Hogan Lovells has promoted transactional lawyer Leonid Ervits to Counsel in the firm’s Moscow office, effective as of January 1, 2014.

    Ervits is an English and Australian-qualified lawyer, specializing in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and private equity work. Along with the news of Ervits’ promotion, Hogan Lovells announced that 29 lawyers at the firm had been promoted to Partner, and another 38 to Counsel, Of Counsel, and Consultant, world-wide. 

     

  • Soltysinski Kawecki & Szlezak Makes New Partner

    The Polish Soltysinski Kawecki & Szlezak law firm has promoted Labor lawyer Roch Palubicki to Partner.

    Palubicki joined SKS in 2000 and has been heading the firm’s Labor Law Department since 2012. He specializes in management contracts, working time, and non-competition as well as employment aspects of M&A transactions, including transfer of employees. He also regularly represents clients in Poland’s labor and social security courts.

  • New Hires at FKA Furtek Komosa Aleksandrowicz

    Less than a month after announcing that Partner Jaroslaw Grzywinski had left Taylor Wessing in Warsaw to lead FKA Furtek Komosa Aleksandrowicz’s Real Estate and Infrastructure practice, FKA announced that Senior Associates Aleksandra Pokropek and Przemyslaw Rybicki had moved to the firm.

    Pokropek’s practice involves advising financial institutions, investment funds, brokerage houses, and companies listed or preparing to be listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. She specializes in transactions on the derivative market and share issue programs for both Polish and foreign issuers.  

    Rybicki specializes in corporate and litigation services to business entities, especially in the area of anti-monopoly law and unfair competition. Before Kancelaria Radcow Prawnych he worked in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Department of European Union Law, where he worked on the draft amendment to the act on competition and consumer protection, and before that at the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, where he conducted antimonopoly proceedings as well as proceedings involving potential infringement on collective consumer interests.

  • Glimstedt Names New Managing Partner and New Partner in Estonia

    Baltic Law Firm Glimstedt announced that Indrek Leppik will be replacing Priit Latt as Managing Partner of the firm’s Estonia office, and that Estonian lawyer Moonika Kukke had been promoted to Partner, both as of January 1st, 2014. 

    Leppik joined Glimstedt in 2007 and made Partner in 2009. He specializes primarily in various forms of dispute resolution, and he leads the firm’s Litigation Settlement working group. Kukke, who specializes in Energy law, joined Glimstedt in 2011.

  • Schoenherr Advises On Acquisition of Microporous’s Austrian and US Operations

    European law firm Schoenherr, along with lead counsel Wilkie Farr Gallagher in the United States, advised the New York-based private equity firm Seven Mile Capital Partners II on its USD 120 million acquisition of the Austrian and US operations of Microporous, a leading producer of lead-acid battery separators, from Polypore International.

    As part of the transaction, Seven Mile Capital acquired the Microporous lead-acid battery separator facilities in Tennessee, in the United States, and Feistritz im Rosental, in Austria. The transaction successfully closed on December 19, 2013.

    Schoenherr covered all Austria-related aspects of the transaction, including due diligence, contract documentation, acquisition financing, and tax. The Schoenherr team was led by Partner Christian Herbst and included Partners Michaela Petritz-Klar, Sascha Hodl, and Roman Perner, along with Senior Associate Maximilian Lang.

  • Weil, Gotshal & Manges Advises on Management Buy-out of Hungarian TV Operations

    The Budapest and Munich offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges advised the management of Hungary’s TV2 on the purchase of the Hungarian TV operations of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group by way of a management buy-out.

    The managers involved in the purchase were CEO Zsolt Simon and CFO Yvonne Dederick.

    The TV2 portfolio includes four channels: TV2, FEM3, PRO4 and Super TV2. Founded in 1997, TV2 is one of the most popular national television channels in Hungary, and has been part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group since 2007.

    The Weil team advising TV2 management included Partner Barbara Jagersberger and Associate Thomas Zimmerman in Munich, Associates Pal Szabo and Tamas Simon in Budapest, and Gergely Szoboszlai in London.

  • Wierzbowski Eversheds Wins Contract to Advise New Lodz City Centre

    On December 17, 2013, the management board of Nowe Centrum Lodzi selected the offer of a consortium made up of Wierzbowski Eversheds, Mott MacDonald Polska, Mott MacDonald Ltd and KPMG Advisory in the tender for the coordinating concept for the development of a Special Culture Zone in the New Lodz City Centre. 

    The Special Culture Zone is an area of about 12 hectares in the heart of the New Lodz City Centre, which includes over 50 different development projects in the dense urban section of the Polish city.  

    Wierzbowski Eversheds offer within the consortium was prepared by Partner Arwid Mednis and Associate Agnieszka Chylinska.