Category: Poland

Dentons has advised Europa Capital investment fund on the sale of the Radisson Collection Hotel in Warsaw to Wenaas Hotels Europe A/S, a fund belonging to the Norwegian investment group Wenaasgruppen. Wenaas Hotels was advised by Soltysinski Kawecki & Szlezak.

According to Dentons, “Radisson, with 311 rooms and suites, was the first hotel in Poland which joined the selected group of 25 hotels acting under the ‘Radisson Collection’ premium lifestyle brand.”

The Dentons team included Partner Pawel Debowski and Counsel Jacek Jezierski.

The SK&S team included Partner Krzysztof Cichocki, Senior Associate Leszek Malecki, Krzysztof Wos, and Leszek Bialy, and Associate Michal Dawidowicz.

Clifford Chance has advised mBank Hipoteczny on its foreign issuance of EUR 300 million of mortgage bonds, placed on the Euromarket and maturing in September 2025.

According to Clifford Chance, “during book building, over EUR 1 billion worth of bids were collected from over 70 real-money investors (i.e., investment and pension funds). The final book consisted of European investors, predominantly from Germany, Scandinavia, and Austria. The issued bonds are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.”

A specially constructed derivative instrument consisting of a cross-currency interest rate swap was used in the issuance. “The particularity of this kind of transaction lies in the fact that it cannot be terminated when the issuer becomes insolvent and in securing the counter-party’s rights on the same level as the rights of the covered-bond holders by entering the transaction into the register of security of mortgage bonds,” Clifford Chance reports.

Clifford Chance’s Warsaw-based team included Partners Grzegorz Namiotkiewicz and Andrzej Stosio, Counsel Grzegorz Abram, Senior Associate Aleksandra Rudzinska, and Junior Associate Roksana Kaluzna, while its team in London included Partner David Dunnigan and Senior Associates Eric Green and Daniel Deacon.

Editor’s note: After this article was published, CEE Legal Matters learned that White & Case advised joint lead managers Commerzbank AG, Erste Group Bank AG, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, and Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen Girozentrale on the issuance. The firm’s team included Warsaw-based Partner Marcin Studniarek, Counsel Bartosz Smardzewski, and Associate Dawid Ksiazek, London-and-Dubai-based Partner Debashis Dey, and Dubai-based Associate Adam Gao.

Dentons has advised Equinor and Polenergia on a joint venture related to the Baltyk I offshore windfarm, with Equinor acquiring a 50% stake in the project from Polenergia.

According to Dentons, “Baltyk I’s target maximum capacity will reach 1,560 MW. Equinor will act as a project manager in the development phase, as well as at the stage of prospective construction and operation.”

The Dentons team included Managing Partner Arkadiusz Krasnodebski, Partners Pawel Grabowski, Ewa Rutkowska-Subocz, and Agnieszka Stefanowicz-Baranska, Counsels Arkadiusz Wierbicki, Michal Motylewski, and Zbigniew Stasiak, and Associates Agata Sokolowska, Agnieszka Kot, Dawid Krakowiak, and Maciej Marek.

Deloitte Legal Poland has advised Value4Capital on the acquisition of Summa Linguae Technologies S.A.

As part of the transaction, V4C has taken up new shares in Summa Linguae Technologies S.A. and purchased existing shares from its shareholders.

Value4Capital is a private equity firm which invests in medium-sized enterprises in Central Europe. It focuses on buyouts of entities with an established market position which operate in Poland and other Central European EU member states.

The Deloitte Legal team in Poland included Partners Pawel Moskwa and Lukasz Blazejczyk and Managing Associate Piotr Rysiak.

Deloitte Legal did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Dentons Warsaw has helped GPW Benchmark apply to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority for authorization to administer reference rates, including the key interest rate benchmark WIBOR.

“Filing the application before the end of 2019 means that the transition period under which supervised entities may continue to use WIBID and WIBOR benchmarks is extended until PFSA issues the authorization,” reports Dentons. “In the meantime, GPW Benchmark will follow an administrative procedure that requires the provision of addenda and explanations as well as amendments, if requested by the supervision authority.”

The Dentons team included Partner Marcin Bartczak and Associate Tomasz Orczykowski.

Earlier this month Dentons also helped GPW Benchmark obtain permission from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority to administer all stock exchange indices, including the WIG20, mWIG40, sWIG80, and NCIndex, as well as the TBSP.Index (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on December 9, 2019).

Czabanski & Galuszynski has advised the ODDO BHF Aktiengesellschaft Bank in the project of financing and securing a bank guarantee granted by a third bank.

ODDO BHF Aktiengesellschaft is an independent Franco-German financial group based in Frankfurt am Main, active in particular in the sectors of private wealth management, asset management, and investment banking.

According to Czabanski & Galuszynski, its lawyers were “responsible for handling transactions in aspects related to Polish law and issuing a legal opinion regarding the legal capacity of the borrower to conclude financing documents, also taking into account the borrower’s special needs.” The firm’s team was led by Partner Piotr Galuszynski and included Attorney at Law Bartosz Lewandowski and Associate Maciej Rafalowski

Czabanski & Galuszynsk did not reply to our inquiry.

Dentons has advised BaltCap Infrastructure Fund on a PPP procedure related to the energy efficiency upgrade of public utility buildings in Mielno Municipality, Poland.

The private partner selected for the execution of the project is IZIM, a company belonging to the BaltCap Infrastructure Fund, which will co-finance the investment valued at over PLN 20 million. The contractor will carry out renovation works in four public utility buildings and will then maintain those buildings for a period of eight years. Once completed, the project will reduce heating and electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 70 percent.

Dentons describes the procedure as one of the few hybrid PPP projects in Poland, combining financing from a private partner with additional financing from the European Union.

Dentons team consisted of Managing Counsel Tomasz Korczynski and Senior Associate Jakub Kot.

The firm reported that it was unable to identify counsel for BaltCap.

Linklaters Warsaw has advised Meridiam and Urbaser on a public private partnership for a major waste-to-energy project in the Polish city of Olsztyn.

According to Linklaters, “French fund Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments S.A.S. and the Spanish company Urbaser S.A.U. were advised on the preparation of the organizational structure and the offer for a public-private partnership project aimed at ensuring the management of the combustible fraction of municipal waste from the Warminsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship together with the recovery of energy in high-efficiency cogeneration. The recovered energy will be used in the Olsztyn district heating network.”

According to Linklaters ”the project will contribute to the reduction of air pollution and the implementation of EU policies on waste management.”

The Linklaters team was led by Counsel Patryk Figiel and Senior Associates Natalia Mikolajczyk and Tomasz Pleskot.

Linklaters did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Kochanski & Partners has advised iTaxi on the acquisition of an organized part of Radio Taxi Barbakan’s enterprise from an unnamed Krakow taxi corporation.

Kochanski & Partners reports that iTaxi operates in more than 150 cities and towns in Poland and that Radio Taxi Barbakan, established in 1994, “is the largest network of transport services in the Malopolska region.” According to the firm, “the acquisition is aimed at consolidating and strengthening iTaxi’s market position as a leader in taxi transport via an app already being used by 15 million Poles.”

“I expect the taxi market to consolidate much more strongly in the near future,” iTaxi CEO Jaroslaw Grabowski told Poland’s Puls Biznisu website. “Taxi transport is the last transport sector that is so fragmented, there are hundreds of companies operating on local markets without the marketing or organizational facilities that the larger companies have. iTaxi is currently holding talks with more than a dozen potential industry partners in several cities in Poland and is already closing a number of agreements. And we do not exclude further acquisitions. Consolidation is how we envisage achieving the greatest potential in this market. The larger the fleet, the faster we can link drivers with passengers, and the technological advantage becomes more significant as our scale grows.”

The Kochanski & Partners team was led by Partner Pawel Mardas.

Dentons Warsaw and Greenberg Traurig have advised Patrizia Frankfurt Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft on its sale of the Feniks office building in Warsaw to South Korea’s K-Trust, managed by JR AMC.

Patrizia Frankfurt Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft is a German entity managing real estate investment funds in Europe.

Feniks is an A-class office building in the center of Warsaw. The facility offers approximately 8,600 square meters of office space on eight floors.

Dentons Partner Bartlomiej Kordeczka supervised the firm’s team, which was led by Senior Associate Arkadiusz Debski with the support of Associate Anna Misztela.

Greenberg Traurig’s team included Local Partner Justyna Szwech, Senior Associate Karolina Olko, and Associate Jakub Gajzler.