Category: Austria

DLA Piper is providing pro bono support to the Austrian breast health foundation, which focuses on independent breast cancer research.

DLA Piper’s support includes, in particular, pro bono legal advice provided by a team led by Vienna Partners Christoph Mager and Elisabeth Stichmann, who have been supporting the Austrian breast health foundation since its establishment in 2003. Christoph Mager has been acting as a board member of the foundation since 2008.

According to DLA, “apart from pro bono legal advice, the law firm also supports the foundation in its efforts to raise donations for the funding of breast cancer research. In early March 2017 DLA Piper hosted a ‘Life Science Cocktail’ in cooperation with the Austrian breast health foundation at the Skybar, an exclusive rooftop bar in the heart of Vienna. The event which was attended by approximately 100 guests from the business community and public institutions was utilized to promote awareness for breast health and a call for donations to the foundation. The event was also supported by well-known Austrian artists, singer Barbara Wallner and pianist Bela Koreny, who performed chansons for the guests.”

“The Austrian breast health foundation’s work is extremely important,” said Christoph Mager. “A great number of scientific research projects in Austria were initiated, implemented and supported with proceeds of the foundation and donations in the past. All of them serve the purpose of achieving the foundation’s vision: that nobody has to die of breast cancer anymore by the year 2030. We are happy that we can support the Austrian breast health foundation on its way to achieve that vision.” 

“Austria has not had any significant legal developments for the last 12 months, beyond the general implementation of EU measures and legislation that affect all member states and some Austrian legislative initiatives, for example in the area of supporting start-ups,” says Christoph Moser of Austria’s Weber & Co. Rechtsanwaelte. “But what the legal profession is really talking about is whether the profession is about to change in the future in terms of digitalization and artificial intelligence.”

“The issue is now coming to Austria,” Moser says, “though we’ve seen it for some years in the UK and US.” According to Moser, “many lawyers in their 40s and 50s see artificial intelligence as a threat to their business, not only in the long term, but even in the short term.” He says, “it’s really been an issue in terms of how lawyers are going to work in the next three to five years, especially when it comes to large volume projects or litigations. Artificial intelligence technologies will increasingly be an important factor in handling and pricing assignments, especially for large assignments that include due diligences or the handling and case management of court and arbitral disputes.” The consequence of this development is unavoidable, he says. “That means you cannot bill for many associate hours any longer, because parts of the due diligences are done by computer software or supported by computer software.” As a result, “many large firms are seeing that as a threat to their business models, especially where it comes to high volume transactions and fees paid for due diligence work.  The question is always, should your firm be among the first to invest in the new technology — which requires significant up-front investment — or should you be more a follower, to see where the market goes?”

That specific issue is less a concern to Moser and his colleagues at Weber & Co. “We don’t focus on transactions including large-volume due diligence exercises,” he says, “so it’s not too critical for us.” Still, he notes, “we’re also looking into what specialized technology exists to support our specialized business.” 

Moser also notes that large due diligence work seems to be decreasing as a source of revenue for law firms anyway, “both because it’s time-consuming and because it’s a large fee block, and it has not always played a key role.” Moser explains that “if you do a red flag due diligence you’re alerted to certain important factors, but full-fledged due diligence has somewhat fallen out of fashion because the fees are extremely high and eventually — when it comes to M&A transactions — the question will always be how to value results in the purchase price determination and how to weight the factors in the transaction.” He notes that “there are mechanisms in M&A transactions to factor that into the sale price anyway.”

Turning quickly to the Vienna Bar Association, Moser reports that, after several years of controversy in 2015 and 2016 involving a contentious and sometimes ugly fight for leadership, “things have calmed down — things are really going well.”

In terms of practice areas, Moser reports that Real Estate is going really well, “with a number of significant projects and developments — especially in the Vienna area.” Moser describes “large volumes, stunning new neighborhoods, lots of commercial and residential projects,” and says that “even just walking around Vienna you can see lots of developments and that prices are still increasing.” Compliance and Cyber-security is hot at the moment as well, he says, “with lots of demand from large Austrian companies making sure they’re up to date with Compliance obligations.”

Finally, Moser turns to his own area of specialization, reporting that “Austrian Capital Markets are still recovering.” Moser says that “the Vienna Stock Exchange has done well, with stock prices increasing over the past few months. Also you see a trend that issuers are considering new capital market transactions, and we’re hearing from several banks that companies are planning potential IPOs in 2018 or even the end of 2017.” Moser notes that over the previous few years “we have seen hardly any going public and many delistings from the stock exchange and takeovers of listed companies, so the headcount of listed issuers in Vienna was significantly decreasing,” but he says that “I would say for the past three or four months we have heard of one or another issuer planning on going public in the short to mid-term.” He concludes: “This is good news because Austria was silent for Equity Capital Markets for many years, especially compared to Germany or other European markets where stock prices significantly increased and new issuers went public.”

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has announced that Vienna-based Principal Associate Karin Buzanich-Sommeregger will be promoted to Partner on May 1, 2017.

Buzanich-Sommeregger joins 17 other Freshfields lawyers from six of the firm’s practice groups and from ten of its offices in the global promotion round. She is the only new Freshfields Partner in CEE.

Commenting on the promotions, Freshfields’ Senior Partner Edward Braham said, “We are delighted to welcome these exceptional individuals into the partnership. Their legal expertise and commercial know-how will help us continue to grow our market-leading offering for our clients around the world.”

Buzanich-Sommeregger, who joined Freshfields in 2006, works in the firm’s Employment, Pensions and Benefits group. She obtained both her Master’s degree (in 2003) and Ph.D. (in 2008) from the University of Vienna.

Antitrust lawyer Dieter Zandler has been appointed a Partner of CMS’s Vienna office. 

According to CMS, Zandler, who joined the firm in 2007, “particularly deals with multinational merger control as well as antitrust-related fine and investigation proceedings, which have been intensified in the past years, and also supports clients in the fields of antitrust compliance and internal investigations.” He studied law at the University of Salzburg and obtained an LL.M. in International Business Law at the Central European University (Budapest/New York).

“We owe our excellent standing in the field of antitrust law to an experienced and highly skilled team, of which Dieter Zandler has been a member for many years,” said CMS Vienna Managing Partner Peter Huber. “A large number of our clients trust his outstanding support. And not only clients, but also his colleagues appreciate his great commitment to his work. So we are very happy that he is now a partner in our team.” 

Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner (FWP) has advised Ankerbrot AG on acquiring a 65% shareholding in the Linauer & Wagner bakery group from shareholders Brigitte Linauer, Karl Linauer, and Backerei Wagner Betriebs gmbH & Co KG. Baker McKenzie advised the sellers on the deal.

According to FWP, “for Ankerbrot, the transaction comes as part of a quality initiative and a stronger focus on the craft of bakery. Both production sites will be strengthened as a result of the transaction, but both Ankerbrot and Linauer & Wagner will continue to run their bakery chains under their previous trademarks without change.”

The FWP team was led by Partner Christian Thaler.

The Baker McKenzie team was led by Partner Wendelin Ettmayer and included Associate Stephanie Sauer and Junior Associates Pablo Essenther and Michael Schaunig.

Dorda has advised German industrial and logistics property developer Log4Real on its market entry into Austria. Log4Real, a majority-owned company of the German Zech Group, has acquired properties of more than 300,000 square meters in close vicinity to the Vienna Airport from an undisclosed seller.

According to Dorda, “the project, known as Log4Real Industrial Campus Vienna East, foresees a development of approximately 170,000 square meters of flexible and energy efficient new warehouses to accommodate the logistics and light industry. The Industrial Campus targets multi-sector tenants from the area of E-Commerce, Automotive, temperature-controlled logistics for FMCG and retail, pharma logistics, technology, R&D as well as 3PL and contract logistics.”

Also according to Dorda, “on a pan-European level, Log4Real plans to construct 3 million square meters of sustainable energy warehouses at key hub locations for international institutional investors. The program foresees a multi-billion euro investment.”

The Dorda team led by Managing Partner Stefan Artner and Attorney Klaus Pfeiffer advised on constructional and commercial issues related to the acquisition of the properties as well as on the implementation of the Vienna Headquarters which will serve as a central hub for the logistics real estate projects in Austria and CEE. The LeitnerLeitner firm advised on the tax structure and on taxation issues. 

“The asset category logistics has increasingly become attractive, which is once more demonstrated by this transaction,” said Stefan Artner. “We are very pleased to accompany Log4Real’s market entry into Austria and to further support the development of their logistics-hub in Austria and CEE.”

Log4Real CEO Christian Bischoff and the regional Managing Director for CEE, Mario Sander, added that: “Historically, Austria has always been highly attractive for logistics and real estate developers because of its geographical location between east and west. At the same time, we also want to disrupt the Austrian market. The market is in urgent need of technical and sustainable innovations for the development of new class industrial and logistics property. It was a pleasure to work with Dorda and LeitnerLeitner. They did an excellent job for our market entry. We appreciate their solution driven approach, their vast experience and their combined legal and tax knowhow which is crucial to the success of our program.”

Dorda informed CEE Legal Matters that it was unable to disclose the identity of the seller or its legal counsel.

Austrian White Collar Crime specialist Heidemarie Paulitsch has announced the founding of her own commercial criminal law boutique, where she “represents individuals and advises companies on their internal processes and in case of governmental investigations and leads national and international compliance projects.” She also teaches workshops on the topics of House Searches and Anti-Corruption Law.

Born in the Lavant Valley of Carinthia, Austria, Paulitsch graduated from the University of Graz law school (Mag. iur. and Doc. iur.). In 2001, she studied at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in the U.S. She has been admitted as an attorney at law in Austria since 2009. She began her criminal law career with defense lawyer Professor Richard Soyer, then practiced at Wolf Theiss before spending the past seven years with Schoenherr, where she established the firm’s Compliance and White Collar Crime practice group. 

“Today more than ever, companies and managers are the focus of the public prosecutor’s office,” said Paulitsch, in a statement released by the new firm. “Liabilities can cost a company its existence. To avoid that, effective criminal law advice is essential.”

She is, among other things, a member of: the working group Whistleblowing from Transparency International – Austrian Chapter; the Austrian Compliance Officer Association; the Association of Austrian Criminal Defense Lawyers; and the German Commercial Criminal Law Association.

Dorda has elects M&A-expert Christian Ritschka to its partnership.

Ritschka, who has been working with Dorda for more than 11 years, specializes in M&A, distressed M&A/restructurings, and corporate law. According to Dorda, he “has extensive know-how on advising national and international corporate clients.” Recently he advised Austrian real property investor Supernova-Group in its successful sale of nine DIY-markets in Austria and Slovakia (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on January 11, 2017) as well as in its acquisition of several retail properties in Croatia (as reported on March 1, 2017)

“We are delighted to admit Christian Ritschka to our partnership,” said Dorda Partner Martin Brodey, Head of of the firm’s M&A desk. “He is an excellent lawyer, deeply focused and a team-player. His expertise and international experience are an indispensable asset to our firm.”

Ritschka started his career at Dorda in 2005 during his studies, before becoming an Associate in 2009 and an Attorney at Law in 2013. In 2014 he had a one-year secondment with Kirkland & Ellis in New York. He studied law at the University of Vienna (Mag. iur. 2007, Dr. iur. 2010).

Schoenherr has advised publicly traded, global sugar, starch and fruit processor Agrana Beteiligungsverwaltungs-Aktiengesellschaft as issuer on its successful rights offering of 1,420,204 new shares, combined with a secondary offering of 500,000 existing Agrana shares held by Sudzucker AG, one of Agrana’s core shareholders. Joint global coordinators Berenberg, BNP Paribas, Erste Group, and Raiffeisen Bank International were advised by Clifford Chance Deutschland and Weber & Co. Rechtsanwalte, while Sudzucker was represented by Wolf Theiss.

The deal, which was announced on January 31, 2017, was structured as a cash capital increase in two tranches from existing authorized capital. In the first tranche, 1,316,720 new Agrana shares, for which Agrana’s core shareholders Sudzucker AG and Z&S Zucker and Starke Holding AG have waived their subscription rights, and 500,000 existing Agrana shares directly held by Sudzucker AG, were placed with selected institutional investors in international private placements outside the United States of America in an accelerated book-building.

In the course of the second tranche, Agrana’s free float-shareholders were entitled to exercise their statutory subscription rights and subscribe pro rata for the new shares. New shares which were not taken up in the Rights Offering were subsequently offered for purchase to selected institutional investors in international private placements outside the United States.

Following completion of the offering, free float increased from nearly 7.3% to approximately 18.9%. Agrana intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to finance further growth, including through acquisitions.

According to Schoenherr, “this is the first equity capital market (ECM) transaction in the Austrian market in 2017, and the first deal of its kind in Austria following the entry into force of the European Market Abuse Regulation. The transaction had an overall deal volume of approximately EUR 192 million.

Agrana is a globally operating Vienna-based industrial processor of agricultural raw materials with business operations in three segments: sugar, starch and fruit. The company is a global leader for fruit preparations and the leading producer of fruit juice concentrates in Europe. With around 8,500 FTEs based at 53 production facilities around the world, AGRANA maintains a global presence and generated consolidated revenue of almost EUR 2.5 billion in 2016/15 and is listed in the prime market segment of the Vienna Stock Exchange.

Schoenherr reports that it supported Agrana “by providing comprehensive transactional advice on structuring as well as drafting the prospectus and negotiating the transaction documentation with the underwriters and Agrana’s core shareholders.”

“With the Austrian market having seen only few equity capital markets transactions in the last two years, Agrana’s rights offering is unquestionably one of the more prominent recent ECM deals,” commented Schoenherr Capital Markets Partner Ursula Rath, who led the firm’s team on the deal. “We are honored that Agrana selected Schoenherr to serve as its legal advisor for this important transaction.” Rath was joined on the core team by Counsel Stefan Paulmayer and Partner Peter Feyl. They were supported by Partner Thomas Kulnigg and Associates Martina Hiebl and Sascha Smets.

The core Weber Rechtsanwalte team acting as banks’ counsel as to Austrian law consisted‎ of Partners Stefan Weber and Christoph Moser and Associate Simmon Fleissner.

The Frankfurt-based Clifford Chance team consisted of George Hacket, Counsel Barbore Moring, and Associate Philippa Winter.

The Wolf Theiss team advising Sudzucker was led by Partner Markus Heidinger and included Managing Partner Richard Wolf and Senior Associate Matthias Schimka.