Category: Latvia

TGS Baltic has announced that Triniti Latvia Partner Sandis Petrovics and his team of six lawyers will leave that firm to join TGS Baltic’s Riga office on July 1, 2019.

According to TGS Baltic, Petrovics will be joined by former Triniti Senior Associates Armands Masulis and Violeta Zeppa-Priedete and Associates Arina Stivrina, Mikelis Ozolins, Harijs Lielvards, and Alina Lepere. 

TGS Baltic Managing Partner Ivars Grunte commented: “This merger will enable us to have additional support in the fundamental practices of our law firm and will ensure further growth.” 

Petrovics has over 20 years of experience. He specializes in dispute resolution, public procurement, corporate & commercial, real estate, and construction.

Before joining Triniti in in 2003, Petrovics worked at the law office of E.Radzins. He also worked as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Latvia from 1995-1998.

TGS Baltic Latvia has successfully represented insolvent SIA Viesis 2 on its claim of EUR 1,786,655.54 in damages from its former management board members in in order to enable the company to pay creditor’s claims and the costs of the insolvency proceedings.

On May 15, 2019, the appellate instance court satisfied the damages claim of the insolvent SIA Viesis 2. The court also ruled that SIA Viesis 2 should recover damages amounting to EUR 1,786,655.54 by applying statutory interest of 6% per year from the outstanding amount of the principal debt, as well as the state duty and litigation costs jointly and severally from the former management board members.

The judgment is not final, and according to TGS Baltic the appellate instance court ruling is subject to appeal in the Senate of the Supreme Court. The management board members of SIA Viesis 2 have filed a cassation complaint.

The TGS Baltic team consisted of Partner Nauris Grigals and Senior Associate Raivis Znotins.

Primus Derling has advised Besix ReRe Group, consisting of N.V. Besix S.A. from Belgium and SIA Rere Buve from Latvia, on its agreement with Eiropas Dzelzceļa llnijas to develop the complex building design and construct the Rail Baltica Riga railway bridge, earth bank, and Riga Central Passenger Station.

The EUR 430.5 million contract was signed on May 29, 2019. 

The project includes 2.6 kilometers of standard-gauge railway section in Riga with six new railway overpasses over Riga’s Lacplesa, Dzirnavu, Praga, Maskava, Makusala, and Jelgava Streets, as well as a new one-kilometer bridge over the Daugava and the Maza Daugava rivers.

According to Primus Derling, “as a result of the implementation of Rail Baltica project, a transportation hub will be established in the center of Riga that is expected to contribute to mobility, security, accessibility of the city, and give new features to Riga connecting visually and functionally the parts of the city that are currently separated by the railway earth bank, and providing a connection between both banks of the Daugava by means of a new railway bridge that will also be used by pedestrians and cyclists.”

The Primus Derling team consisted of Partner Kristine Gaigule-Saveja and Senior Associate Andis Ozolins.

Cobalt has successfully represented the Central Election Commission of Latvia before the Latvian Administrative District Court in a case regarding the cancellation of 2019 EP election results.

Despite acknowledging problems in the organizational process, the court concluded that the Central Election Commission of Latvia had been acting in compliance with applicable laws and that there was no legal ground to cancel the election results. As a result, the Administrative District Court dismissed the applications of political party alliance Latviesu Nacionalisti, EP Deputy Candidate Andris Rubins, and political party Jauna Saskana. The Court’s rulings are final and cannot be appealed.

The Cobalt team included Managing Partner Lauris Liepa and Associate Inese Greke.

Cobalt has advised AB SEB Bankas on arranging the EUR 70 million notes issue program of AS Attistibas Finansu Institucija Altum and issuance of EUR 15 million notes with a yield of 0.95%.

Altum is a state-owned development finance institution, which offers state aid for various target groups with the help of financial tools, such as loans, credit guarantees, and investing in venture capital funds. 

According to Altum, the transaction attracted a great deal of interest from investors in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia and the notes were oversubscribed by 13 times. The proceeds from the notes will be used for Altum’s funding purposes of sustainable business projects that are vital for the national economy within agriculture.

The Cobalt team was led by Specialist Counsel Edgars Lodzins and included Partner Sandija Novicka and Associate Krisjanis Buss.

Ellex Klavins has advised Baltic Horizon on the EUR 75 million acquisition of 100% of the shares of Tampere Invest SIA, which owns the Galerija Centrs shopping center in Riga, from Linstow AS. Sorainen advised Linstow AS.

The Galerija Centrs shopping center is a five-floor complex with a net leasable area of 20,073 square meters. Baltic Horizon Fund is a regulated closed-end contractual investment fund registered in Estonia and managed by Northern Horizon Capital AS, a subsidiary of the Northern Horizon group.

The Ellex Klavins team was led by the Counsel Ivars Pommersand and included Partner Inita Jurka and Associates Anete Dimitrovska, Marta Cera and Ineta Kanepe.

The Sorainen team was led by Senior Associate Renate Purvinska and included Partners Eva Berlaus, Lelde Lavina and Janis Taukacs, and Senior Associates Aija Lasmane and Jorens Jaunozols.

Cobalt Estonia has advised venture capital firm Karma Ventures and Sorainen Latvia has advised Practica Capital on their co-financing of EUR 5 million series A investment in Sonarworks.

Practica Capital in Lithuania and Karma Ventures in Estonia were lead investors in the round, with several other investors ‒ Revo Capital in Turkey, SuperAngel in Estonia, ProksCapital and Imprimatur in Latvia ‒ participating as well.

Sonarworks, which was founded in 2012 in Latvia, focuses on digital sound calibration technologies and has customers in over 170 countries. According to Sorainen, Sonarworks technology is used by at least 30,000 recording studios worldwide, including more than 35 Grammy winners.

Established in 2011 in Lithuania, Practica Capital is a dedicated Baltic venture capital fund focusing on investments in Baltic and Baltic-origin seed, early stage, and select growth stage technology ventures. Practica Capital manages several investment funds. According to Sorainen the investment in Sonarworks is the third ‒ and most significant ‒ by Practica Venture Capital II fund, which was established at the end of 2018.

Karma Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm, specialized in late seed and A round investment in Europe’s tech start-ups.

Cobalt has previously advised Karma Ventures on investments in AppGyver (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 24), Plumbr (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 19, 2017), SpectX (as reported on June 9, 2017), Adaptive Simulations (as reported on May 9, 2017), Minut, Inc. (as reported on November 27, 2017), and Sonarworks (as reported on December 15, 2017).

The Cobalt team consisted of Partner Kristel Raidla-Talur and Senior Associate Greete-Kristiine Kuru.

The Sorainen team consisted of Managing Partner Eva Berlaus, Senior Associate Janis Bite, and Associate Liva Aleksejeva.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct the composition of the Cobalt team. 

Ellex Klavins has advised alternative investment fund manager SIA SG Capital Partners AIFP on raising EUR 80 million in investments for the commercial real estate fund SG Capital Partners Fund I KS it manages.

SG Capital Partners AIFP is a manager of investments in commercial real estate in the Baltics, with investments in Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn.

The Ellex Klavins team consisted of Partner Zinta Jansons and Associate Marta Cera.

Cobalt is advising Roche Latvija on the reconstruction of Roche’s historic headquarters in Riga, as well as on an agreement with Italian contractor Novatek to level the building.

The estimated project cost is EUR 5 million.

The Roche historic headquarters was built in the early 1930s, and according to Cobalt, it “served as an architectural inspiration for a number of Roche buildings across the Europe.” It was nationalized during Soviet times and was for decades used by various state institutions. Roche reacquired the building in 2016.

The reconstruction process is in progress and is expected to finish at the beginning of 2020. The building will host Roche’s Latvian office and innovations laboratory. 

In 2018, Cobalt advised Roche Latvija on the acquisition of Roche’s product distribution businesses, to Medilink (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 10, 2018).

The Cobalt team advising on the reconstruction and leveling project consists of Managing Partner Dace Silava-Tomsone, Partner Sandija Novicka, Specialist Counsel Sabine Vuskane, and Associate Juta Guļkevica.   

TGS Baltic has successfully represented the shareholders of the AS Grindeks pharmaceutical company in Latvia’s appellate court against a EUR 1,903,294.80 damages claim by VAS Privatizacijas Agentura arising from Grindeks’ failure to make an allegedly mandatory buy-back offer.

TGS Baltic’s team consisted of Partners Ivars Grunte and Nauris Grigals.

According to TGS Baltic, the appellate court’s ruling remains subject to “appeal in the high court senate.”