Category: Greece

AKL has advised Alpha Bank acting as original subscriber, mandated lead arranger, bondholder agent, and administrative agent on the issuance of an up to EUR 362 million common bond loan by Astir Palace Vouliagmenis.

According to AKL, Astir Palace Vouliagmenis operates in Greece’s hospitality sector and is the owner of the ultra-luxury hospitality resort Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens. The funds will be used “for the refinancing of the existing banking indebtedness of Astir Palace Vouliagmenis and for the funding of the construction costs of the project for the comprehensive redevelopment of the tourist port-marina of Vouliagmeni.”

AKL did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Souriadakis Tsibris has advised the founders of Greek electric appliances trading company Inventor on the sale of a majority stake to Swedish Beijer Ref. Saplegal Papadimitriou & Partners reportedly advised the buyer.

Inventor has operated on the Greek market for over 50 years, specializing in the field of air and electric appliances.

Beijer Ref is a Nasdaq Stockholm-listed company, providing a range of products to customers in the fields of commercial refrigeration, industrial refrigeration, air conditioning, and heating.

“I am happy we have now closed and executed the acquisition,” Beijer Ref CEO Christopher Norbye commented. “With the acquisition of Inventor, Beijer Ref enters the Greek market and strengthens its positions on other markets. Inventor has great potential with proven expertise and the acquisition is in line with our growth strategy. We look forward to continuing their strong development.”

The Souriadakis Tsibris team consisted of Managing Partner Manolis Souriadakis, Partner Pigi Konstantinou, and Associate Zinovia Gkatsi.

The end of 2020 saw landmark legislative interventions in Greece, mainly aiming to create the prerequisites for the widest possible adoption of the EU Target Model (the creation of a single EU energy market) and boost the penetration of renewable energy sources, in a regulated and rational way. According to the government, these interventions “establish the framework for a more rational operation of the sector, on more competitive terms, to the benefit of the consumers and of the Greek economy in general.”

In particular, Law 4685/2020 has transposed into Greek national law European Directives 2018/844 and 2019/692, updating and streamlining environmental licensing procedures for RES projects, while Law 4579/2020 has amended the Greek Law on Strategic Investments, providing a fast-track licensing procedure for RES power generation plants. These may now be qualified as strategic investments and claim grid connection priority if they meet certain criteria, including: (1) being innovative applications and technologies projects; (2) having a budget of at least EUR 50 million; and (3) having a connection point to the National Electric Power Transmission System.

Innovative projects, within the scope of this law, are those using any of the following technologies: electric power storage systems, green hydrogen production, offshore wind farms and floating photovoltaic farms, RES projects connecting areas of the national territory to the NEPTS through an undersea cable, fully regulated renewable electricity production projects (using biomass, biogas, geothermal stations, and solar thermal stations), and RES hybrid projects on non-interconnected islands.

Projects would qualify as innovative and gain strategic investment status through a request by the investor to Enterprise Greece SA, a state-owned company. The actual qualification of the project as innovative is issued by the Ministry for the Environment and Energy, within five days of receiving the related request from Enterprise Greece. It is estimated that each licensing step will be completed within 45 days of the relevant dossier’s submission, with the Environmental Terms Approval Decision to be issued within 30 working days. The complete licensing procedure is expected to last three years.

Additionally, non-innovative RES projects with a budget of at least EUR 100 million may become strategic investments, without being able to claim grid priority.

The above changes came at a time when domestic and foreign investment interest for onshore RES projects in Greece had grown tremendously. While the Greek National Plan on Energy and Climate aimed for RES stations with a capacity of 19 gigawatts by 2030, that target was surpassed four times over, with applications for a total capacity of 75 gigawatts having been submitted. The Government also announced it expects new regulations regarding offshore wind farms to enter into force by December 2021. Offshore wind has a huge investment appeal, with Greece placing third among EU states (including the UK) in the ranking of available offshore wind potential, with an estimated 263 gigawatts.

To date, the Greek Government has granted only two licenses for offshore wind farms, both in 2007. Floating offshore wind farms, in particular, are currently the focus of investor interest since bottom-fixed ones are harder to develop, due to the deep waters of the Greek Seas. The Greek Ministry for the Environment and Energy intends to implement, by 2022, a program for the delimitation of special offshore planning. Interventions in the fields of navigation, fishing, environmental protection measures, and others are expected, all needed to ensure that licensing and implementation of the relevant investments occur in a framework of legal certainty.

According to the announcements of the competent department within the Ministry for the Environment, the global regulation of offshore wind farms, as elaborated by the Greek Government, shall take into consideration the report regarding the European Strategy on the issue of offshore RES. The global regulation shall be based on three axes: siting and licensing regulation, terms of interconnection to the Continental Electricity System, and definition of the way in which the relevant investments will be compensated.

By Spyros Alexandris, Partner, and Irene Economou, Senior Associate, Bahas Gramatidis & Partners

This Article was originally published in Issue 8.8 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.

Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners is providing pro bono legal support for the Western Greece Regional Governor’s initiative to restore and replace up to 100,000 olive trees out of those affected by the recent fires in the greater area of Ancient Olympia.

According to the firm, Partner Yanos Gramatidis was also involved in the mobilization of economic and social players in the United States, including the Arete Fund non-profit organization, to organize an online campaign for the purchase of the new olive orchards and their planting in the Ancient Olympia area.

During the first half of August 2021, following a prolonged drought and a severe heatwave, wildfires in the region have fully or partially burned up to 500,000 olive trees.

The Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners team is led by Partner Yanos Gramatidis.

Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners has advised Marriott International on a set of agreements with Michaniki Environment for the operation of a new five-star 100-room hotel in Thessaloniki.

According to the firm, the hotel will be a part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, represents a EUR 15 million investment, and will be operated by Ledra Hotels & Villas, of the Spanos Group.

Founded in 1927, Marriott International operates over 7,000 properties across 131 countries. Michaniki Environment is a real estate development and construction company. Ledra Hotels & Villas is a Greek hospitality group of companies.

The Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners team was led by Partner Yanos Gramatidis.

The firm could not provide further information on the deal.

Koutalidis has advised the Macquarie Group on the acquisition of a 49% ownership interest in the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator.

According to Koutalidis, “following an international public tender process launched by [the Public Power Corporation], Macquarie was declared the preferred bidder with an offer valuing 49% of HEDNO’s enterprise value at EUR 2.116 billion, making this landmark transaction one of the largest privatizations to have ever taken place in Greece.”

The Koutalidis team included Managing Partner Nikos Koritsas, Senior Associates Yannis Loizos and Yannis Kantas, and Associates Kostas Papakonstantinou and Spyros Roussakis.

The firm did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published, AKL announced that it had advised Alpha Bank on a senior facility to partially finance the acquisition of the 49% stake in HEDNO.

Koutalidis has advised the Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA) on its issuance of a common bond loan of EUR 505 million. Lambadarios Law Firm advised Alpha Bank, Eurobank, the National Bank of Greece, and Piraeus Bank as the four Greek systemic banks.

According to Koutalidis, DESFA issued a common bond loan of up to EUR 435 million. The bond program includes an “accordion” option, allowing for the increase of the loan by EUR 70 million, reaching a total amount of EUR 505 million. The four systemic banks acted as arrangers of the bond loan, and Eurobank acted as bondholder agent and administrative agent.

The proceeds from the issue will be used for the financing or refinancing of DESFA’s capital expenditures and for the Group’s general corporate and working capital purposes.

The Koutalidis team was led by Managing Partner Nikos Koritsas and Partner Ioannis Kaptanis and included Senior Associate Dimitris Kalyvas, and Associates Fani Chlampoutaki and Ioanna Sereti.

The Lambadarios team consisted of Partners Yannis Kourniotis and Prokopis Dimitriadis, Counsel Konstantina Siozou, and Senior Associate Theodoros Papadatos.

Catherine Karanikola has joined the YNV Group as Chief Legal Officer in Greece.

Prior to her move, Karanikola worked for Microsoft as a Softomotive Integration Legal Counsel between July 2020 and September 2021, having served as Softomotive’s Group General Counsel & VP of Operations between 2019 and 2020. Before Softomotive, she was the General Legal Counsel, Compliance & Data Protection Officer of Velti, a company she first joined in 2009 as a Senior Legal Counsel.

Before moving in-house, she was a Senior Associate with SFSP Law between 2006 and 2019 and an Associate with Karatzas & Partners between 2002 and 2006.

“YNV is a group of companies with diverse business lines spanning from premium support services to Blue Chip tech giants to real estate commercial exploitation in sites all over the world,” commented Karanikola. “I was primarily attracted by this diversity in business and the vision and mission of the group to offer world-class services from primarily immersing markets such as Costa Rica, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Vietnam, Greece. The group has an amazing high-growth culture that makes anyone feel like home from day one. I have been entrusted to run a global legal team of high caliber legal professionals and will be contributing towards creating a forward-looking legal department providing world-class legal services and participating actively in the digital transformation of the YNV group which is currently driving for itself and its customers.”

Originally reported by CEE In-House Matters.

Reed Smith has advised PPC Renewables on a joint venture with RWE Renewables towards the joint development, construction, and operation of an up to 2 gigawatt-peak solar photovoltaic projects portfolio in Greece.

According to the firm, the completion of all formalities for the formation of the joint venture is expected to take place later this year.

PPC Renewables is the renewables arm of the Public Power Corporation which, according to Reed Smith, is Greece’s largest power producer and supplier. RWE Renewables is the renewables subsidiary of the German energy company RWE AG.

“We are excited to have advised PPC Group on the formation of this strategic partnership with a global leader in the renewable sector,” commented Athens-based Partner Dimitris Assimakis. “This is definitely a landmark transaction for PPC Group and the Greek renewable market. It was a challenging and complex transaction, given the scale of the assets involved and the fact that the legislative and policy initiatives for the formulation of the national just transition plan for the so-called ‘delignitization areas’ were rolling out in parallel with the transaction.”

The Reed Smith team was led by Assimakis and included Athens-based Senior Associate Minas Kitsilis and Brussels-based Partner Christian Filippitsch and Counsel Max Seuster.

Reed Smith did not reply to our inquiry for additional details.

Your Legal Partners and Dracopoulos & Vassalakis have been selected to provide legal advice to the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations on the development of Kalamata Airport.

According to HCAP, the preferred consortium of consultants selected consists of “Deloitte Business Solutions, FCNC Financial Advisors, Doxiadis Associates Consultants on Development and Ekistiks, Maria I. Golfinopoulou-Katerina A. Christodoulou Law Firm (Your Legal Partners), and Dracopoulos and Vassalakis Law Firm (DVLaw).”

According to HCAP, “the consortium will undertake to draft and submit a combined diagnostic study mapping the current situation. Drafting a business plan, it will submit specific proposals/solutions for the optimal development of the airport. It will also assist HCAP in the preparation of the tender process set for launch in the second quarter of 2022. Kalamata is the first step in the implementation of the HCAP strategy for the development of regional airports through securing significant investments in infrastructure, equipment, and upgrading of the services provided.”