Category: Lithuania

Glimstedt has advised AB Klaipedos Nafta on the sale of 33.33 % of its shareholding in UAB Litgas to UAB Lietuvos Energija. 

According to a Glimstedt statement, the firm “provided full legal support to the client on various transaction related matters, including the shareholders’ agreement interpretation, the right of first refusal implementation, calculation and payment of the share price, competition, and other aspects.”

The Glimstedt team included Partner Paulius Gruodis and Senior Associate Audrius Zvybas, supported by Associate Partner Andrius Ivanauskas and Associate Jonas Salna on competition matters.

Image Source: oil.lt

Sorainen has assisted the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance in successfully pricing an offer of EUR 450 million (nominal value) Eurobonds that will be consolidated to form a single series of 20-year Eurobonds issued last year. 

The transaction was lead-managed by Goldman Sachs International and J.P. Morgan. Before the addition the issue size was EUR 750 million but it has now reached EUR 1.2 billion. 

Said Rasa Budbergyte, the Lithuanian Minister of Finance: “The decision was driven by positive sentiment in the financial markets and our aim to fix into the low interest rate. This re-opening of our longest Eurobond increases the liquidity of the bond, so that the price discovery exercise will be more efficient from now on. The proceeds from the offer will be used for general budgetary purposes as foreseen in the 2016 Borrowing Programme approved by the Government.”

The Eurobond has been issued at a yield of 1.132 per cent and an issue price equal to 116.955 per cent of its face value. Settlement of the Eurobond will take place on October 22, 2016. The maturity date is October 22, 2035. 

Sorainen Partner Tomas Kontautas and Senior Associate Agne Sovaite advised the Ministry on Lithuanian law-related issues.

Sorainen had advised Lenndy, one of the first crowdfunding platforms in Lithuania, on its launch. 

According to Sorainen, the Lenndy platform is based on a sharing economy and allows investors to acquire rights of claim emerging from business loan agreements already concluded. Lenndy operates under the hybrid crowdfunding method, adapted to the Lithuanian regulatory environment and marketing trends.

Speaking about Lenndy, which he conceived of and heads, Donatas Satkauskas explained that: “We believe that the Lithuanian market is ready for crowdfunding. We have created a platform allowing you to employ your money safely and profitably. We invite small and medium businesses to borrow under flexible terms and we invite investors to lend money to businesses and profit from the interest.”

Sorainen reports that it advised Lenndy “on all issues related to launching a business, including business model structuring and adapting it to international crowdfunding practice as well as structuring procedures for fund management. Sorainen also prepared platform documentation and represented the company in negotiations with its main partners.”

The Sorainen team consisted of Associate Arturas Asakavicius, the co-head of the Sorainen Startup practice group, along with Specialist Counsel Augustas Klezys and Associate Lina Ragainyte.

Glimstedt has reported that, on July 19, 2016, a judicial panel of the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court granted a claim filed by Lithuanian Jews (“Litvaks”) now living in South Africa that the Lithuanian Interior Minister’s decision to refuse their application for restoration of Lithuanian citizenship be revoked and that their application for dual citizenship reinstatement be reconsidered by the Ministry of the Interior.

According to Glimstedt, the court of first instance dismissed the application as unfounded following its established case-law. It was noted by the court that the departure by the applicant’s mother from Lithuania could not be interpreted as “fleeing away” because the reasons for her withdrawal from Lithuania before 1940 provided to the Migration Department could hardly be deemed to constitute specific or exceptional reasons sufficient to qualify her departure as an exceptional case.

The firm reports that, although the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court also relied on the interpretation of the concept of “fleeing away” provided in Article 7 of the Lithuanian Law on Citizenship, which was in effect on the application submission date and which required proof of some individual threats to the “person who left Lithuania before 11 March 1990,” the Court emphasized that it was not correct to associate such threats solely with an occupation regime. According to the Court, the Migration Department did not look properly into the facts indicated by the applicants and, specifically, into the fact that their withdrawal from Lithuania was based on their belonging to a particular ethnic group.

By instructing the Migration Department to reconsider the applicants’ request for reinstatement of dual citizenship, the Court drew attention to an analysis of the historical situation of Jews in Lithuania from 1918 – 1949 carried out by Lithuanian scholars Sarunas Liekis and Linas Venclauskas, and to other arguments and evidence presented by the applicants to underpin their request. The Court also drew attention to the fact that the Law Amending Article 2 and Article 7 of the Law on Citizenship was passed by the Lithuanian Parliament on June 23, 2016, to expand the ability to regain Lithuanian citizenship. 

In the opinion of Glimstedt Associate Partner Solveiga Paleviciene, who represented the claimants along with fellow Associate Partner Inga Klimasauskiene, the judgment delivered by the Supreme Administrative Court and the amendments to the Law on Citizenship open up the possibilities to thousands of Lithuanian Jews who were forced to leave Lithuania before 1940 due to gross violation of their rights, ethnicity, and threatened holocaust, “vividly demonstrate a breakthrough in legal consciousness in Lithuania, political maturity and a responsible approach to historically sensitive issues.”

Fort has announced that it represented UAB Creditinfo Lietuva in an administrative case heard by the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, in which the Court decided that the data published by users of the Facebook social network may be used for assessing their creditworthiness.

According to Fort, “this new precedent now enables the business community to process Big Data for providing various innovative services, subject to user’s consent.”

Fort explains that, “the processing of Facebook or other social network data is the de facto worldwide standard for the provision of innovative electronical services. Before this case the scope of data that may be used for the assessment of creditworthiness was not clear in Lithuania. This legal uncertainty allowed the supervising institutions to interpret the innovative business practices differently. Some had adopted the position that Art. 21 and Art. 22 of the Law on Legal Protection of Personal Data of the Republic of Lithuania provided an exhaustive list of data that may be processed for financial services, even if the user himself wishes to include more data. The Court recognized that the Law on Legal Protection of Personal Data does not provide an exhaustive list of data that can be processed in order to assess creditworthiness. This significant precedent enables data processing for innovative businesses, limits undue interference by public state institutions and protects the user’s freedom to decide on the scope and purpose of their data online.”

The Fort team representing Creditinfo Lietuva consisted of attorneys at law Mindaugas Kiskis and Gytis Kuncevicius and lawyer Aiste Samuilyte-Mamontove. 

Tark Grunte Sutkiene has advised AB INVL Technology on its transformation into a special closed-ended investment company. The Bank of Lithuania issued the necessary license and approval in July 2016 and approved the company’s share prospectus for listing of the shares on the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange.

According to Tark Grunte Sutkiene, this is the first time a listed company has been transformed into a special closed-ended investment company in the Baltics.

AB INVL Technology, which invests in information and communication technologies, is listed on NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange. The company was created by the merger of AB BAIP Grupe and AB INVL Technology. INVL Technology operates as a cluster of B2B- and B2G-oriented IT businesses with a focus on four areas: business climate improvement and e-governance, IT infrastructure, cyber security, and IT-intensive industry solutions. Its largest investments currently are in companies in Europe (Lithuania, Norway, Estonia, Moldova) and East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda).

Last year Tark Grunte Sutkiene also advised AB INVL Technology on its public offering of shares — which the firm described at the time as the largest in the Baltic States since 2011 — and admission thereof to trading on the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on July 15, 2016).

The firm’s team in this most recent matter included Partners Vidmantas Drizga and Agnius Pilipavicius, Senior Associate Mantas Gofmanas, and Associate Egle Mazetyte.

Primus has successfully represented the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) in an arbitration before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

A football club and its players had appealed several decisions of the LFF’s disciplinary bodies to impose sanctions on football club and its players due to match-fixing related infringements. The CAS dismissed the appeal and upheld the LFF’s sanctions.

According to Primus, “this CAS award shall have a big impact on the fight against match-fixing in the future: from now on the federations will have more flexibility to govern different types of match fixing violations and the disciplinary bodies of federations will be able to investigate potential match fixing violations while assessing experts’ conclusions based on analysis of particular match videos.”

The Primus team consisted of lawyers Marius Devyzis and Martynas Kalvelis.

Sorainen has assisted Enerstena UAB, a Lithuanian manufacturer and distributor of biomass boiler plants in the Baltic States and Ukraine, on developing a transfer pricing policy (TP) for the company.

According to a Sorainen press release, the firm “prepared TP policy for justification of pricing applied for intra-group transactions such as manufacturing services, automation services, management and support services, sale of spare parts, and provision of loans.

The Sorainen team advising Enerstena was led by Partner Janis Taukacs, supported by Senior Associate Aija Lasmane and Associate Kaspars Strazds.

TVINS has represented UAB Agrosfera, a large grain purchaser in Lithuania, on its purchase of real estate and entrance into a state-owned land plot lease agreement.

According to TVINS, the firm “drafted a preliminary real estate sale-purchase agreement [and] advised the client on state owned land plot separation [and] territorial planning issues.” In addition, the firm reported, its team “also drafted a partially mixed (principal and preliminary) real estate sale-purchase agreement for the second development stage of the real-estate project, drafted relevant shareholders’ decisions, and advised on other general matters related to the complex project.”

Lithuania’s TVINS law firm has advised the investment management company Lords LB Asset Management UAB regarding the setting up of a new closed-end fund intended for investors of its Energy and Infrastructure SME Fund.

The newly-created fund will specialize in investments in small and middle-sized energy and infrastructure projects in the Baltic countries. The fund seeks to accumulate EUR 25 million in assets and operate for 8 years.

TVINS drafted the rules and prospectus of the fund and investment agreements, as well as representing Lords LB Asset Management before the Bank of Lithuania. The firm’s team was led by Managing Partner Tomas Talutis.