Bernitsas Law has advised Intrakat on raising EUR 100 million in equity capital and the January 2023 listing of its new shares on the Athens Exchange.
Intrakat is a Greece-headquartered company that specializes in construction, infrastructure, environmental, and real estate development projects.
The Bernitsas Law team included Partner Nikos Papachristopoulos, Senior Associate Sofia Kontou, and Associate Kelly Hatzigaki.
Bernitsas Law did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.
Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised the United Group on the merger and corporate restructuring of its Greek entities Nova and Wind.
Nova is an Athens-headquartered telecommunications company. It operates a network of 93 stores in 52 cities in Greece and provides services to more than 15% of Greek households. Wind is a telecommunications company operating in the Greek market.
The United Group acquired Wind Hellas back in 2021 (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 3, 2021) with plans to merge the two entities already in place at the time.
The Netherlands-based United Group is a telecommunications and media operator in Southeast Europe.
The Zepos & Yannopoulos team included Partner Stefanos Charaktiniotis, Senior Associate Danai Falconaki, and Associates Nadia Axioti and Elia Bastali.
Nova’s in-house team included Head of Legal Spiros Papastathopoulos and Legal Advisor Maria-Sofia Sfika.
Zepos & Yannopoulos did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.
Kyriakides Georgopoulos has advised Optima Bank on its acquisition of five portfolios of receivables from performing corporate exposures in the secondary market.
Optima Bank is a banking and financial services institution in Greece that, apart from its full banking license, is also a member of the Athens Stock Exchange.
The Kyriakides Georgopoulos team included Senior Partner Konstantinos Vouterakos, Counsel Basileois Douzenis, Senior Associate Eleana Nounou, Associates Athanasios Misirlis and Marianna Katsifi, and Junior Associates Sofrini Sideri and Maria Avgidou.
Kyriakides Georgopoulos did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.
Metro A.E.B.E. has appointed Dimitris Smirnis to Executive Director – Legal & Government Affairs.
Smirnis has been with the Greek supermarket chain since 2005 and was previously the Executive Director – Head of Legal.
Since 1998, he’s also been serving as the Managing Partner of his eponymous firm Smirnis & Associates, while also having served as the Chief Legal Counsel of Nea Diagnosi, a Member of the Board of Directors and Corporate Legal Counsel of Grantex, and a Counsel of Optima.
Originally reported by CEE In-House Matters.
Renewable energy is slowly becoming an evergreen industry in Greece, with strong investor interest in wind and solar power projects that stand to hasten the recovery of the country, according to Reed Smith Partner Dimitris Assimakis.
“Looking at the past few years, there has been a significant influx of new investments in the Greek renewable energy sector,” Assimakis begins. “The Greek government has extended efforts to attract investors in this field and is still doing so, which means that we expect even stronger interest moving forward. Legislative and policy support, with aggressive targets for this decade and beyond, are influencing the energy sector, primarily power generation,” he explains.
Greece is rich in sunshine and wind, which directly correlates to the types of projects being pursued. “New capacities, of approximately one gigawatt or even more, are coming online almost year on year,” Assimakis continues. “Also, there is an ambitious plan of making a push for the sea, to prop up offshore wind power projects.” Still, the full framework to accommodate the strong interest in such projects, given the country’s high offshore wind potential, is not yet in place. “There are still quite a few legislative acts to be adopted, making the achievement of the set target – the addition of 2 gigawatts in offshore wind capacity by 2030 – a challenging deed,” Assimakis says, “but given that there is so much investment interest in play, it stands to reason that there will be more pushes. Moreover, the government is focusing its efforts on the development of new types of projects – like energy storage – and incentivizing the development of scalable renewable energy projects and innovative green energy projects with added value to the national economy.”
Assimakis explains that, in addition to the solar PV projects being developed, much is being done on the transmission side of things. “Grid operators are strengthening and developing the electricity grids all over the country. Many grid expansion projects have been performed, for example, in linking the Aegean sea islands with the mainland – which is a very important technical requirement for the further development of the sector,” he explains, citing the examples of Crete and the Cycladic islands. In addition, “a second interconnector is under construction with Bulgaria, while a second interconnector is planned with Italy, and there are plans for the development of new linkages with Egypt and Cyprus,” Assimakis says. “Greece has plans to become a green power exporter sometime in the future, and all of the efforts behind that are generating swaths of legal work for the market.”
Overall, Greece is back on a healthy economic track, following several years of macroeconomic global turmoil, Assimakis says. “The country is coping well and 2023 projections are following along the lines of the near-7% growth of 2022.” On these grounds, he reports new investors coming in, with “varied profiles – not just utilities and traditional power developers, but also private equity, investment funds, and alternative investors.” While these investors still primarily come from abroad, Assimakis highlights a “significant push from Greek renewables developers, especially when it comes to wind and solar power. Many private equity and investment funds are looking at Greece, which was reflected on the market in 2022 – big deals took place and more are sure to come.”
Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised Bain Capital Credit on the full acquisition of Piraeus Bank Group leasing subsidiary Sunshine Leases.
The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.
According to Zepos & Yannopoulos, “Sunshine Leases owns a portfolio of non-performing financial leases with EUR 500 million gross book value as of September 30, 2022.”
The Zepos & Yannopoulos team included Partner Christina Papanikolopoulou and Senior Associate Efthymis Naoumis.
Zepos & Yannopoulos did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.
Koutalidis has advised NN Hellas on its merger by way of absorption of NN Hellas II, the former MetLife business in Greece.
Part of the NN Group, NN Hellas is a Greek multinational insurance company.
According to Koutalidis, the legal merger follows the completion of the acquisition process of MetLife’s business operations in Poland and Greece. CEE Legal Matters initially reported on the Polish leg of this transaction back in May 2022.
“The merger will integrate two complementary portfolios and increase the footprint of NN Hellas in the Greek market, creating the largest insurance company in Greece in the life and non-life sectors,” the firm informed.
Koutalidis did not respond to our inquiry on the matter.
The Lambadarios Law Firm and Watson Farley & Williams have advised lead arranger Piraeus Bank on the EUR 425 million project financing for the Thessaloniki Eastern Ring Road to be developed by Avax and Mytilineos following their PPP agreement with the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
“The project will involve the construction of an elevated expressway (flyover), approximately 9.5 kilometers long, four kilometers of which on a continuous bridge, with four lanes, two plus an emergency lane in each direction,” Lambadarios informed.
“In total, the flyover will include 13 kilometers of roadway, nine over- and underpass junctions, four kilometers of continuous flyover bridge, eight new bridges, and three new tunnels,” the firm reported. “This new state-of-the-art highway will be constructed within 48 months, resolving for good the city’s serious traffic problem.”
The Lambadarios team included Partners Yannis Kourniotis, Konstantina Siozou, Prokopis Dimitriadis, and Constantinos Lambadarios and Senior Associate Thodoris Papadatos.
The WFW team included Athens-based Of Counsel Stamatis Kotsiras and lawyers from the firm’s London office.
Reed Smith has advised PPC Renewables on its successful bid for the acquisition of a renewable energy assets portfolio from Piraeus Equity Partners. The KLC Law Firm reportedly advised the seller.
Closing is expected in early 2023, pending regulatory approval.
According to Reed Smith, “the portfolio comprises two operating wind parks with a total installed capacity of 44 megawatts located in Peloponnese, a 2 megawatt-peak operating photovoltaic park located in Trikala, Thessaly, and a 38-megawatt wind projects portfolio developed in various locations close to the sites of the operating wind parks.”
PPC Renewables is the renewables arm of the Public Power Corporation which, according to Reed Smith, is Greece’s largest power producer and supplier.
Reed Smith previously advised PPC Renewables on a joint venture with RWE Renewables for the development of an up to 2 gigawatt-peak solar photovoltaic projects portfolio in Greece (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 18, 2021).
The Reed Smith team was led by Partner Dimitris Assimakis and included Counsel Minas Kitsilis, Senior Associate Konstantinos Roppas, and Associate Georgia Koui.
The Koutalidis Law Firm has advised Etem and ElvalHalcor on their strategic partnership with Cosmos Aluminium. Corina Fassouli Grafanaki & Associates advised Cosmos Aluminium.
The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval. The merger will see ElvalHalcor join Cosmos Aluminium with a 15% stake in Cosmos, while the current shareholders of Cosmos Aluminium will hold the remaining 85%.
Cosmos Aluminium is an aluminum extrusion industrial company in Greece. ElvalHalcor is a member of the Viohalco group and the sole shareholder of Etem.
“The envisaged transaction involves the absorption of Etem by Cosmos Aluminium, resulting in the creation of a robust company in the field of aluminum extrusion, maximizing the benefits for the shareholders, staff, and partners of both merging companies and creating a number of synergies and economies of scale between them,” Koutalidis informed.
“The operations of Cosmos Aluminium and Etem are currently complementary to each other – the first being active in the field of industrial aluminum profile and the second in the field of the architectural aluminum profile,” the firm reported. “Following the absorption of Etem, Cosmos Aluminium is expected to have a projected turnover of over EUR 300 million, becoming one of the largest extrusion manufacturers in South-East Europe.”
The CFGA Law team included Managing Partner Korina Fassouli-Grafanaki, Partner Anastasia Aravani, and Associate George Tsamouris.
Editor’s Note: After this article was published, PPG Lawyers announced it had advised, alongside Jordanov Valkov & Partners, Cosmos Aluminium and Etem Commercial and Industrial Light Metals on obtaining the necessary merger clearance before the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission. The favorable decision was issued on March 30, 2023.